Objectives: To evaluate the efficacy of a novel approach to achieve the optimal penile erection during the penile doppler ultrasound (PDU) examination, which was oral sildenafil combined alprostadil injection.
Materials and methods: A total of 60 ED patients were enrolled in our prospective study, and they were randomly assigned to two group with different PDU order. The approaches assisted the PDU included two models, mode A meaning injection of 15 μg alprostadil and model B meaning oral sildenafil 100 mg plus injection of 15 μg alprostadil. The PDU parameters were measured continuously before induced erection, and 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 min.
Results: Each group included 30 ED patients with similar clinical characteristics. After pooling the results together, the PSV, EDV, and RI were all improved significantly, when adding the oral sildenafil administration to assist PDU. Also, the clinical response of oral sildenafil administration plus alprostadil injection was better than that in alprostadil injection alone (p = 0.016). The arterial ED were decreased from 31.67% to 15.00% with the P value 0.031, and the mixed ED was also decreased statistically (23.33% vs 8.33%, p = 0.024).
Conclusion: Oral sildenafil administration plus alprostadil injection could improve the diagnostic accuracy of PDU.
Keywords: Penile doppler ultrasound; diagnostic accuracy; erectile dysfunction; intra-cavernous injection; oral sildenafil.