Researchers in Malaysia have found that seventy-six percent of men hospitalized for a heart attack had erectile dysfunction six months prior to the heart attack.

The yearlong study conducted last year involved 111 sexually active men at the University Malaya Medical Center, said Dr. S. V. Ramesh of the University of Malay Medical Centre in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Atherosclerosis, the root cause of erectile dysfunction and coronary artery disease, is a generalized inflammatory disorder that progresses at a similar rate throughout the body, but erectile dysfunction may precede heart attacks because penile arteries are considerably smaller than the coronary arteries, Ramesh further added.

According to Ramesh, "This study demonstrates that we should consider patients with evidence of erectile dysfunction to be of very high risk for development of future acute coronary syndromes. Interestingly, the study also found that all patients with a prior history of heart attack and erectile dysfunction presented with recurrent heart attacks. Therefore, we should screen and treat such patients very aggressively." (With inputs from Agencies)