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Genetically predicted cardiovascular diseases could increase the risk of erectile dysfunction: a bidirectional Mendelian randomization

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Abstract

Purpose

Erectile dysfunction (ED) often appears concomitantly with cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). However, the causal relationship between ED and CVDs is still unclear. This study aimed to investigate the causal effects between CVDs and ED using bidirectional Mendelian randomization (MR).

Methods

ED data (6175 cases and 217,630 controls) were obtained from the IEU OpenGWAS project. Seven types of CVDs were acquired in our study, including stroke (Sample size = 440,328), myocardial infection (Sample size = 184,305), coronary heart disease (Sample size = 86,995), hypertension (Sample size = 36,683), heart failure (Sample size = 208,178), atrial fibrillation (Sample size = 1,030,836), and coronary artery disease (Sample size = 141,217). Inverse variance weighted (IVW) was selected as the primary method for MR analysis.

Results

IVW results indicated that stroke (OR = 1.14, 95% CI = 1.02–1.29, P = 0.025), coronary artery disease (OR = 1.09, 95% CI = 1.02–1.16, P = 0.013), coronary heart disease (OR = 1.07, 95% CI = 1.01–1.13, P = 0.017), myocardial infection (OR = 1.09, 95% CI = 1.02–1.17, P = 0.011), and atrial fibrillation (OR = 1.06, 95% CI = 1.00–1.12, P = 0.04) were causally associated with ED. The reverse MR analysis suggested that ED did not influence the prevalence of CVDs.

Conclusion

These findings highlighted CVDs as causal risk factors for ED, but ED did not directly result in the development of CVDs. Regular monitoring of the erectile function of individuals with CVDs, along with implementing appropriate preventive measures, might help reduce the incidence of ED and enhance the sexual well-being of patients with CVDs.

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Availability of data and materials

All data could be obtained from the publicly available IEU OpenGWAS Project (https://gwas.mrcieu.ac.uk/).

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Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 82001740).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Urology, Second Hospital of Shanxi Medical University, Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan, People’s Republic of China

    Yujia Xi

  2. Key Laboratory of Cellular Physiology at Shanxi Medical University, Ministry of Education, Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, People’s Republic of China

    Yujia Xi, Xinyu Yin, Jing Zhou, Ruotong Shen, Likun Qi & Shengxiao Zhang

  3. Shanxi Provincial Key Laboratory of Rheumatism Immune Microecology, Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, People’s Republic of China

    Yujia Xi, Xinyu Yin, Jing Zhou, Ruotong Shen, Likun Qi & Shengxiao Zhang

  4. Department of Rheumatology, The Second Hospital of Shanxi Medical University, Shanxi Medical University, 382 Wuyi Road, Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, 030001, People’s Republic of China

    Shengxiao Zhang

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  1. Yujia Xi
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Contributions

SXZ and YJX conceived and designed the analysis; YJX, XYY, and JZ performed the analysis; SXZ, YJX, RTS and LKQ wrote the manuscript; SXZ and YJX reviewed the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Shengxiao Zhang.

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Xi, Y., Yin, X., Zhou, J. et al. Genetically predicted cardiovascular diseases could increase the risk of erectile dysfunction: a bidirectional Mendelian randomization. World J Urol 41, 3187–3194 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00345-023-04630-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00345-023-04630-6

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