PATIENT-REPORTED ERECTILE DYSFUNCTION - A CROSS-VALIDATION STUDY

Previous work highlighting a significant correspondence between patien t-reported sex history information and physiological indices of erecti le functioning was cross-validated. The matched sample comprised of 46 older male veterans presenting with erectile dysfunction, with many e xperiencing chronic physical illnesses. All subjects underwent a compr ehensive medical and psychological evaluation, followed by 2 consecuti ve nights of in-hospital Rigiscan diagnostic monitoring, to evaluate p enile rigidity, tumescence, and duration of erectile episodes Stringen t criteria were employed to control for confounding, of Rigiscan resul ts, with elimination from the study for affective, thought, or sleep d isorders. Results from the multiple regression analyses showed that pa tient reports of AM erections and erectile quality accounted for signi ficant proportions of the variance in the Rigiscan criterion measures, with 3 of the 4 R2 values falling within the Herzberg criterion for c ross-validation. Results confirm the diagnostic significance of patien t self-report for the population of older, chronically ill men who pre sent with impaired erectile functioning.