Study: Viagra boosts heart performance

Edmonton, Alberta -- Canadian medical scientists have discovered Viagra, a popular drug used to treat erectile dysfunction, can also improve heart function.

University of Alberta researchers said their finding should encourage physicians to consider the drug when a patient has a failing right ventricle -- a condition for which no treatments are currently available.

"There are a number of medical conditions in both children and adults for which there is a need to boost the performance of the right ventricle, and this drug can be clinically and immediately relevant to help these patients," said Dr. Jayan Nagendran, the study's first author. "Sometimes the right ventricle can fail rapidly and even result in death, like in lung transplant surgery, for example. In such a case, Viagra may increase the right ventricle's performance and save the patient."

Dr. Evangelos Michelakis, senior author of the study, said the finding might be the first example of a drug that can improve the function of the right ventricle, which is diseased in pulmonary hypertension, without affecting the left ventricle, which is normal in pulmonary hypertension.

The research is to appear in next week's issue of the journal Circulation.

Copyright 2007 by United Press International.