Gender differences stand out in measuring impact of Viagra as therapy for heart failure
Saturday, May 17, 2014 - 19:01
in Health & Medicine
Sildenafil, the erectile dysfunction drug sold as Viagra and now under consideration as a treatment for heart failure, affects males and females very differently, new animal studies by cardiovascular researchers strongly suggest. In female mice modeling human heart failure, the benefits of sildenafil ranged from robust to practically nonexistent, depending on the animals' levels of the hormone estrogen, says a researcher. In male mice, sildenafil generally appears to work well, but only because it targets a different biological process independent of estrogen, he says.