Serum leptin level in diabetic patients with erectile dysfunction

Abstract

Background: Erectile dysfunction (ED) is a common sexual problem affecting men. Diabetes mellitus (DM) is one of the most common comorbidities of ED. Leptin is a 167-amino-acid peptide that is mainly expressed in white adipose tissue but is also found in a variety of tissues. Objective: To estimate serum level of leptin in diabetic patients with ED and correlate level of serum leptin in diabetic patients with severity and origin of ED. Patients and methods: Cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted on 64 individual male; 34 diabetic patients of both types of DM with ED and 30 non diabetic normal erectile function as control. All patients were evaluated clinically by history included IIEF-5 score and examination. Assessment of serum leptin level, HbA1c, cholesterol, triglycerides was done and penile duplex study was done only for diseased patients. Results: Serum leptin significantly increased in cases than control (P <0.001). Also, there was increased in diabetic men vasculogenic ED either arterial, venous or mixed (P =0.047). Serum leptin was correlated with the severity of ED (P =0.046). Conclusion: Leptin may play an important biomarker as a cost-effective method for diagnosis and assessment of severity of vasculogenic ED in DM and as a good predictor for ED occurrence.