PENILE ELECTROMYOGRAPHY AND ITS SMOOTH-MUSCLE CONTENT - INTERPRETATION OF 25 IMPOTENT PATIENTS

Purpose: We studied the correlation of penile electromyography and the cavernous smooth muscle content in 25 impotent patients. Materials an d Methods: After a complete hormonal and diagnostic evaluation, all pa tients underwent corpus cavernosum penile electromyography and a penil e biopsy of the corpus cavernosum with the biopsy gun device. Cavernou s tissue was analyzed using immunohistochemical stain actin anti-actin and computerized image analysis. Results: Of the patients 20 had norm al and 5 had abnormal corpus cavernosum penile electromyography. Of th e 20 patients with normal corpus cavernosum penile electromyography 12 (60%) showed a normal percentage of cavernous smooth muscle and 8 (40 %) had abnormal muscle content. All patients with abnormal corpus cave rnosum penile electromyography showed abnormally low cavernous smooth muscle fibers. Conclusions: Our study showed an overall low sensitivit y between corpus cavernosum penile electromyography potential amplitud e and cavernous smooth muscle content. However, a high specificity (10 0%) of corpus cavernosum penile electromyography in the diagnosis of a bnormal low cavernous muscle content was observed. Further studies wit h a larger number of patients are needed to evaluate corpus cavernosum penile electromyography as a predictor of cavernous smooth muscle fun ction.