Association Between Erectile Dysfunction and Fontaine Classification in Patients with Peripheral Artery Diseases: A Cross Sectional Study

ABS TRACT Objective:To identify the association between peripheral artery disease (PAD) and erectile dysfunction (ED) with using Fontaine classification (FC).Material and Methods: The present study was planned in a prospective manner between November 2020-April 2022, and male patients who admitted to cardiovascular surgery outpatient polyclinic were enrolled into the study.Severity of PAD and presence of ED were evaluated by FC and International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF) score, respectively.To clarify the correlation between ED and FC, patients were divided into 2 groups.Patients with IIEF score ≤11 were classified as Group 1 and patients with IIEF score ≥17 were categorized as Group 2. The groups were compared in terms of patient demographic characteristics, blood test outcomes, IIEF scores and GS scores.Results: Totally, 181 patients with mean age 55.9 years were enrolled in the study.Smoking rate and presence of diabetes mellitus was significantly lower in favor of patients without ED (69.1% vs 42.5%, p=0.001 and 54.4% vs 33.6%, p=0.006).Lower extremity ischemic scores according to FC were significantly better in favor of patients without ED (p=0.001).Multivariate regression analysis showed that higher body mass index (BMI), being a smoker and presence of diabetes mellitus were predictive factors for ED (p=0.001,p=0.034and p=0.001, respectively).In addition, FC 3-4 were significantly associated with ED (7.132 times, p=0.001).Conclusion: The present study revealed for the first time that FC 3-4 increased risk of ED.Additionally, diabetes mellitus, smoking history, and higher BMI were predictive factors for ED.