Hypothalamus may be involved in psychogenic erectile dysfunction / 中华男科学杂志

ABSTRACT

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To study the changes of hypothalamus metabolism in patients with psychogenic erectile dysfunction (ED) so as to get some clues to the possible pathogenic factors and pathophysiological mechanism of the problem.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Six cases of psychogenic ED and 4 normal volunteers were studied by positron emission tomography (PET) for the characteristics of hypothalamus glucose metabolism. Following audiovisual sexual stimulation, the concentration of fluorine-18-fluorodeoxyglucose (18 F-FDG) was determined and the ratio of the left (right) hypothalamus count to the cerebrum count was calculated.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Audiovisual sexual stimulation significantly increased 18F-FDG in the volunteers (left: 1.026 +/- 0.115 vs 2.400 +/- 0.210; right: 1.003 +/- 0.187 vs 2.389 +0.196, P < 0.05) as compared with the psychogenic ED patients (left: 2.781 +/- 0.156 vs 2.769 +/- 0.223; right: 2.809 +/- 0.129 vs 2.793 +/- 0.217, P > 0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Psychogenic ED may not be simply a functional disease; the hypothalamus may be involved in the pathophysiology of the problem.</p>