Polysomnographic Nocturnal Penile Tumescence Monitoring / 대한비뇨기과학회지

ABSTRACT

Nocturnal penile tumescence is a well-documented normal occurrence associated with rapid eye movement sleep and clinically important in differentiating between psychogenic and organic impotence. The failure, however, to differentiate true increases in tumescence from movement artifact would lead to overestimation of NPT magnitude when portable home-monitoring is used. This can be overcome only by monitoring sleep polygraphically including electroencephalography, electooculography and electromyography. Recently, polysomnographic NPT testing was undertaken in normal potent men and in patients with erectile impotence, which suegests its clinical applicability in diagnosis of erectile impotence and possibly contributes toward understanding the characteristics of penile erection. Herein, we introduce our initial experience of polysomnographic NPTM including methodology, advantages and disadvantages with some literature.