Vol. 43 (4): 730-735, July – August, 2017

doi: 10.1590/S1677-5538.IBJU.2016.0378

ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Thiago Santana 1, Thelma Skare 1, Vitor Steil Delboni 1, Juliana Simione 1, Ana Paula B. Campos 1 , Renato Nisihara 1,2
1 Unidade de Reumatologia, Hospital Evangélico, Padre Anchieta, Curitiba, PR, Brasil; 2 Departamento de Medicina, Universidade Positivo, Curitiba, PR, Brasil

ABSTRACT

Background: Rheumatic diseases such as ankylosing spondylitis (AS) may be associ­ated with sexual dysfunction.

Aim: To study erectile function of a group of Brazilian AS patients comparing them with controls.

Materials and Methods: This was a cross sectional study approved by the local Com­mittee of Ethics in Research. The questionnaire IIEF (International Index of Erectile Function) was applied to 40 AS patients and 40 healthy controls. AS patients had de­termination of disease activity (through BASDAI or Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Dis­ease activity index), ASDAS (Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Score, MASES or Maastricht Ankylosing Spondylitis Score and SPARCC or Spondyloarthritis Research Consortium of Canada), function (through BASFI or Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Functional Index and HAQ or Health Assessment Questionnaire) and BASMI (Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Metrological Index).

Results: AS patients had a median score on IIEF of 22.0 (IQR=18-25) while controls had 29 (IQR=27-30) with p<0.0001 Only 17.5% of the AS patients had no erectile dysfunc­tion, in opposite to 87.5% of controls (p<0.0001). IIEF scores had a negative association with BASDAI (p<0.0001), HAQ (p=0.05), body mass index (P=0.03), MASES (P=0.02) and SPARCC (P=0.02) in a univariate analysis. Multiple regression showed that BAS­DAI was the only variable independently associated with IIEF.

Conclusion: There is a high prevalence of erectile dysfunction among AS patients that is associated with disease activity measured by BASDAI.

Keywords: Erectile Dysfunction; Spondylitis, Ankylosing; Disease

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