Clinical and Imaging Outcomes up to 1 Year Following Balloon Angioplasty for Isolated Penile Artery Stenoses in Patients With Erectile Dysfunction: The PERFECT-2 Study.

PURPOSE: To assess the angiographic and clinical outcomes in patients with erectile dysfunction and isolated penile artery stenoses treated by balloon angioplasty. METHODS: In this prospective study, 22 patients (mean age 61.0±7.6 years, range 50-79) with erectile dysfunction and 34 isolated penile artery stenoses (mean 74.9%±9.1%) were enrolled and underwent balloon angioplasty. The mean International Index for Erectile Function-5 (IIEF-5) score at baseline was 10.3±4.5. The mean lesion length was 11.1±9.0 mm (mean reference vessel diameter 1.7±0.4 mm). The primary endpoint was in-segment restenosis ≥50% by pelvic computed tomography angiography (CTA) at 8 months. The 1-year sustained clinical success (IIEF-5 score ≥22 or a ≥4-point change in the IIEF-5 score and no later decline by ≥4) was the secondary outcome measure. RESULTS: Procedural success was achieved in 31 (91%) of 34 stenotic lesions; there was 1 flow-limiting dissection and 2 arteries with >30% residual stenosis. At 8 months, 14 of 34 lesions in 13 of 22 patients had CTA-documented binary restenosis. At 1 year, sustained clinical success was achieved in 11 of 22 patients. Of the 9 patients not developing binary restenosis, 8 achieved sustained clinical success. CONCLUSION: Our findings establish the safety and efficacy of penile artery angioplasty for patients with erectile dysfunction and isolated penile artery stenoses. They also highlight the unmet need for a more enduring treatment strategy for penile artery stenotic disease.

Effect of 8-Week Combination Therapy with an Extended-Release α1-Blocker (Bunazosin or Doxazosin) in Inadequate Responders to an Angiotensin II Antagonist (Valsartan) in Patients with Stage 1 or 2 Essential Hypertension.

BACKGROUND: Given the favorable impact of α1-blockers on lipid and glucose metabolism, this study was designed to compare the efficacy of two extended-release α1-blockers (bunazosin and doxazosin) as an add-on treatment in subjects with stage 1 or 2 essential hypertension which was inadequately controlled by valsartan 80 mg/day. METHODS: After a 5-week treatment of valsartan monotherapy, subjects with inadequately controlled hypertension were randomized to receive either extended-release bunazosin (n = 47) or doxazosin (n = 46) after breakfast for 8 weeks. Office sitting blood pressure (BP), 24-hour ambulatory BP, and metabolic profiles were measured at baseline, start of study drug, and study end. RESULTS: In the intention-to-treat population (n = 93), the average daily doses of bunazosin and doxazosinwere 2.8 mg and 3.6 mg, respectively. The two add-on treatments achieved significant and similar BP reductions from monotherapy (bunazosin, 13.2/9.3 mmHg; doxazosin, 9.2/8.5 mmHg, all p < 0.001). However, in patients with stage 2 hypertension, patients randomized to the bunazosin group, compared to those in the doxazosin group, achieved a significantly greater reduction in sitting systolic BP (14.4 ± 8.1 vs. 6.6 ± 13.8 mmHg, p = 0.015). In addition, patients who received bunazosin had significant changes in night-day systolic and diastolic BP ratios compared with those who received doxazosin (-0.02 vs. 0.02, p = 0.04 and 0 vs. 0.04, p = 0.04). No significant changes in metabolic profiles were observed in both add-on groups. Both drugs were well-tolerated, but adverse events related to the study drugs were marginally more frequent in the doxazosin group than in the bunazosin group (20% vs. 6%, p = 0.058). CONCLUSIONS: Both extended-release bunazosin and doxazosinwerewell-tolerated and similarly effective as add-on therapy in hypertensive patients uncontrolled by valsartan monotherapy. However, add-on treatment with bunazosin seemed to be associated with favorable night-day BP ratio and greater sitting systolic BP reductions in stage 2 hypertensive patients. KEY WORDS: Combination therapy; Hypertension; α1-blocker.

An Artificial Intelligence-Enabled ECG Algorithm for the Prediction and Localization of Angiography-Proven Coronary Artery Disease.

(1) Background: The role of using artificial intelligence (AI) with electrocardiograms (ECGs) for the diagnosis of significant coronary artery disease (CAD) is unknown. We first tested the hypothesis that using AI to read ECG could identify significant CAD and determine which vessel was obstructed. (2) Methods: We collected ECG data from a multi-center retrospective cohort with patients of significant CAD documented by invasive coronary angiography and control patients in Taiwan from 1 January 2018 to 31 December 2020. (3) Results: We trained convolutional neural networks (CNN) models to identify patients with significant CAD (>70% stenosis), using the 12,954 ECG from 2303 patients with CAD and 2090 ECG from 1053 patients without CAD. The Marco-average area under the ROC curve (AUC) for detecting CAD was 0.869 for image input CNN model. For detecting individual coronary artery obstruction, the AUC was 0.885 for left anterior descending artery, 0.776 for right coronary artery, and 0.816 for left circumflex artery obstruction, and 1.0 for no coronary artery obstruction. Marco-average AUC increased up to 0.973 if ECG had features of myocardial ischemia. (4) Conclusions: We for the first time show that using the AI-enhanced CNN model to read standard 12-lead ECG permits ECG to serve as a powerful screening tool to identify significant CAD and localize the coronary obstruction. It could be easily implemented in health check-ups with asymptomatic patients and identifying high-risk patients for future coronary events.

Safety and six-month durability of angioplasty for isolated penile artery stenoses in patients with erectile dysfunction: a first-in-man study.

AIMS: Obstructive pelvic arterial lesions are highly prevalent in patients with erectile dysfunction and commonly located in penile artery segments. In this first-in-man study, we intended to assess the safety and feasibility of balloon angioplasty for isolated penile artery stenoses in patients with erectile dysfunction. METHODS AND RESULTS: Twenty-five patients with erectile dysfunction and isolated penile artery stenoses (unilateral stenosis ≥70% or bilateral stenoses ≥50%) identified by pelvic computed tomographic angiography were enrolled. A total of 20 patients (mean age 61 years [range, 48-79 years]) underwent balloon angioplasty. Three patients had bilateral penile artery stenoses. Procedural success was achieved in all 23 penile arteries, with an average balloon size of 1.6 mm (range, 1.00-2.25 mm). The average International Index for Erectile Function-5 (IIEF-5) score improved from 10.0±5.2 at baseline to 15.2±6.7 (p<0.001) at one month and 15.2±6.3 (p<0.001) at six months. Clinical success (change in the IIEF-5 score ≥4 or normalisation of erectile function [IIEF-5 ≥22]) was achieved in 15 (75%), 13 (65%), and 12 (60%) patients at one, three, and six months, respectively. There were no adverse events through follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: For the first time we demonstrated that penile artery angioplasty is safe and can achieve clinically significant improvement in erectile function in 60% of patients with erectile dysfunction and isolated penile artery stenoses.

The estimated risk for coronary heart disease and prevalence of dyslipidemia among workers of information technology industries in Taiwan.

BACKGROUND: Individuals working in information technology (IT) industries suffer from high work stress, possibly causing adverse impacts on their health. However, studies of cardiovascular risk factors among these workers are lacking. The aims of this study were to evaluate the estimated risk for coronary heart disease (CHD) and prevalence of dyslipidemia among IT workers. METHODS: A total of 941 employees from 11 IT companies were enrolled and the anthropometrics and serum lipid profiles were measured. The 10-year risk for CHD was calculated based on the Framingham risk score. RESULTS: Compared with lipid profiles in a representative sample (n=6589), IT workers had a significantly higher prevalence of obesity, hypercholesterolemia, low level of HDL-C, and high level of LDL-C in each age group. Their overall estimated 10-year risk for CHD was higher than the average risk of an age- and gender-matched population (2.91% vs. 2.79%, p=0.027). Working for more than 10h/day was associated with a higher estimated CHD risk (3.62% vs. 2.54%, p<0.01). CONCLUSIONS: A higher prevalence of hyperlipidemia was noted among IT workers. Their estimated 10-year CHD risk was also higher than average. More aggressive interventions to reduce the risk of CHD in this population are needed.