Cialis May Help Ease Pulmonary Hypertension

Once-daily dose of the ED drug delayed disease progression, researchers found

By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter

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WEDNESDAY, Oct. 29 (HealthDay News) -- Cialis (tadalafil), a drug used to treat erectile dysfunction, appears effective in treating pulmonary hypertension, researchers report.

Pulmonary hypertension is caused by high blood pressure in the arteries that supply the lungs with blood. People who suffer from the condition can become tired, dizzy and short of breath, because the arteries feeding the lungs constrict and reduce the supply of oxygenated blood being circulating throughout the body.

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But Cialis "was found to improve exercise capacity, health-related quality of life, delay time to clinical worsening, and improve hemodynamic [blood-linked] parameters of disease severity," said lead researcher Dr. Robyn J. Barst, a professor of pediatrics at Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons in New York City. The drug was also well-tolerated, she added.

The report was to be presented Tuesday at the American College of Chest Physicians annual meeting, in Philadelphia.

For the study, Barst's team randomly assigned 405 pulmonary hypertension patients to Cialis or placebo once a day, or to Cialis and bosentan (Tracleer) a common treatment for pulmonary hypertension.

The researchers found that over 16 weeks, Cialis increased patients' six-minute walk distance and delayed their time to clinical worsening, which included death, hospitalizations, worsening functional class and the need for adding new pulmonary arterial hypertension therapy.

In addition, Cialis increased heart output and reduced pulmonary artery pressures compared with those measures at the start of the trial, Barst's group found.

"We would anticipate that tadalafil will be reviewed and approved by the regulatory agencies as an additional therapy available for the treatment of pulmonary hypertension," Barst said. "It is useful for the treatment for pulmonary hypertension, as for many other diseases, to have more than one drug per class approved, due to individual patient responses and side effects," she added.

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