Early onset erectile dysfunction is usually not associated with abnormal cavernosal arterial Inflow

Endothelial dysfunction, a marker for atherosclerosis and hence arterial disease, has recently been proffered as the main offender within the vascular system to predict not only the future onset of erectile dysfunction (ED) but also as the main cause of the ED. To glean more insight into whether arterial disease is indeed operative during the early onset of ED, we reviewed the duplex ultrasound scans of 23 men with ED who were younger than 50 years of age. Depending on the criteria used for abnormal arterial responses, it was determined in this cohort of young men that there was only a 4-13% incidence of abnormal arterial responses. These observations suggest that the penile arterial system does not appear to be primarily involved in the etiology of the majority cases of ED that occur in young men.