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AN APPLE a day, it is said, helps keep the doctor away. For two desperately ill babies however, taking Viagra – the male impotence drug – has actually saved their lives.

Lewis Goodfellow, born 16 weeks early, is making excellent progress after being given the drug, also called Sildenafil, to help open blood vessels in his under-developed lungs.

Erin Cottington, on the other hand, is doing well after taking one of the blue pills every day to help keep her blood pressure down.

Lewis, one of the first babies to be given the drug at the Royal Victoria Infirmary’s special baby care unit in Newcastle, was born premature, with seriously under-developed lungs.

When he was three weeks old, he needed open-heart surgery to correct a faulty valve. But doctors became increasingly worried about his lungs. Despite being given maximum supplies of oxygen, he still struggled to get it into his blood, reported the Daily Mail.

As a last resort the doctors tried Viagra through a drip – and he started to improve.

Now after five months in hospital, Lewis is back at home with his parents. And he is even starting to smile.

Erin Cottington was first given Viagra when she was a few days old to help her overcome life-threatening circulatory problems caused by her under-developed heart and lungs.

Erin was born with her intestines and bowels pushed into her chest cavity, crushing her heart and right lung.

Artificial blood was pumped into her lungs to help increase their capacity. She was given Viagra to open up her blood vessels and improve the flow.

Altogether, Erin had had eight operations, including open-heart surgery, before she was three months old.

After more than 10 months in hospital, Erin returned home to Blackley, Manchester, where she is developing like a normal child.

Source : Thestar

Higher age, body mass index (BMI) and International Prostatic Symptoms Score (IPSS) have been identified as being significantly associated with sexual dysfunction in a large population of men at high risk of developing prostate cancer.

Furthermore, researchers say, there is evidence of an association between erectile dysfunction and prostatic inflammation in this patient population.

Principal investigator Claus G. Roehrborn, MD, professor and chairman, department of urology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Centre, Dallas, United States, presented the findings from an analysis of the baseline data from a placebo-controlled, phase 3 Reduction by Dutasteride of Prostate Cancer Events (REDUCE) study here at the 22nd Annual Congress European Association of Urology (EAU).

“The question here was: does inflammation at baseline predict the presence or absence of erectile dysfunction, decreased libido or level of sexual activity?” he said in a poster session on March 22nd.

Eligibility criteria for the REDUCE prostate cancer prevention trial included age 50 to 75 years, serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level between 2.5 ng/mL and 10 ng/mL for those 50 to 60 years of age or between 3.0 ng/mL and 10 ng/mL for those who were older than 60 years. Patients also were required to have had a negative prostate biopsy in the 6 months prior to enrolment.

The main exclusion criteria included a prostate volume greater than 80 mL, and IPSS score of 25 or greater (or 20 or greater if already on alpha-blocker therapy for benign prostatic hyperplasia), concurrent use (or within the previous 12 months) of a 5 alpha-reductase inhibitor, and acute prostatitis or acute bacterial prostatitis within the previous 6 months.

Source : Docguide

The erectile-dysfunction drug Viagra appears to help the exercise capacity of patients with pulmonary fibrosis, say U.S. researchers.

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is an incurable disease marked by progressive scarring in the lungs, which often necessitates a lung transplant, but the disease can also cause pulmonary hypertension, which lessens blood flow to the lungs, making breathing — and thus, exercise — more difficult.

But researchers at the University of California at Los Angeles say pulmonary-fibrosis patients taking Pfizer’s Viagra were able to improve their walking function, upping walking distance by at least 20 percent during a standard test to measure lung function.

“Over five million worldwide suffer from this devastating disease, so we are hopeful that this drug may prove an effective therapy for pulmonary fibrosis,” said the study’s principal investigator, David Zisman, medical director of UCLA’s Interstitial Lung Disease Program.

In the pilot study, 14 patients with the disease initially took a standard six-minute walking test, then were given Viagra for three months. The patients then took a second walking test to gauge performance changes.

Researchers noted that 57 percent of the patients improved their walking distance by 20 percent or more, with an average improvement in distance of 161 feet.

Eleven patients completed the study, and two of that group stopped the medication due to side effects.

Source : UPI

A common erectile dysfunction medication could help reduce scar tissue after radical prostate surgery, say doctors at Baylor College of Medicine.

Dr. Larry Lipshultz, professor of urology, and Dr. Mohit Khera, clinical post doctorate fellow of urology, will follow 60 men after they undergo total removal of the prostate due to cancer.

"After surgery, many men find themselves suffering from erectile dysfunction," Khera said. "Nerves in the area become damaged and blood flow decreases."

Many delay their treatment of erectile dysfunction (ED) hoping their erections will improve, but Khera said that allows scar tissue to form. The scar tissue can then make it difficult for men to regain their natural penile functions. Read more about ED.

"The study uses Viagra which will be taken every night before bed to increase the flow of blood and oxygen to the penis during sexual content dreams, which happen on average three times a night for men," Lipshultz said. "Better oxygen and blood flow promotes healthy tissue instead of scar tissue."

This study is a follow-up to one Lipshultz worked on four years ago. The results to the first study showed the return of unassisted erections to be 24 percent more than without the therapy. This current study will begin the treatment sooner than in the first study, hoping the recovery rate will increase.

"We are finding that a daily dose helps men get a faster return of natural erection and they heal faster." Khera said. "Patients with low testosterone levels after surgery do not respond well to Viagra, so we are adding testosterone replacement therapy in these patients as well."

Lipshultz and Khera still advise their patients to refrain from sexual intercourse for at least three months after surgery.

The current study is being funded by an $83,000 grant from Auxilium Pharmaceuticals.


Source : Exduco