Erectile Dysfunction, Testosterone Levels and Disease Activity in Ankylosing Spondylitis Patients

To study erectile function in male patients with Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS) trying to correlate it with sexual hormonal profile and disease activity. We included 35 AS patients and 104 controls. Patients and controls answered the IIEF (International Index of Erectile Dysfunction) and had dosing of total testosterone, free testosterone (FT), bioavailable testosterone (BT), SHBG (serum hormone binding globulin), albumin and LH (luteinizing hormone). AS patients had epidemiological, clinical and treatment data obtained from the charts. AS disease activity was measured simultaneously with blood collection through Bath AS Disease Activity Index, ASDAS (AS Disease Activity Score) -ESR (using erythrocyte sedimentation rate) and ASDAS-CRP (using C reactive protein). The IIEF results were worse in AS patients than controls (P = .02). Total testosterone and SHBG were higher in AS (with P = .01 and P