Research Article Evaluation of High Sensitive Troponin in Erectile Dysfunction Alessandra Barassi, 1 Raffaele Pezzilli, 2 Antonio Maria Morselli-Labate, 2 Elena Dozio, 3 Luca Massaccesi, 4 Francesca Ghilardi, 1 Clara Anna Linda Damele, 1 Giovanni Maria Colpi, 5 Gian Vico Melzi d’Eril, 1 and Massimiliano Marco Corsi Romanelli 3,6 1 Laboratorio di Analisi, Ospedale San Paolo, Dipartimento di Scienze della Salute, Universit` a degli Studi di Milano, 20142 Milano, Italy 2 Dipartimento di Malattie dell’Apparato Digerente e Medicina Interna, Ospedale Sant’Orsola-Malpighi, Alma Mater Studiorum, Universit` a degli Studi di Bologna, 40138 Bologna, Italy 3 Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche per la Salute, Universit` a degli Studi di Milano, 20133 Milano, Italy 4 Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche, Chirurgiche e Odontoiatriche, Universit` a di Milano, 20133 Milano, Italy 5 Istituto per la Sterilit` a e la Sessualit` a (ISES), 20123 Milano, Italy 6 Unit` a Operativa Medicina di Laboratorio-1 Patologia Clinica, IRCCS Policlinico San Donato, San Donato Milanese, 20097 Milano, Italy Correspondence should be addressed to Alessandra Barassi; alessandra.barassi@unimi.it Received 21 May 2014; Revised 15 July 2014; Accepted 8 September 2014 Academic Editor: Johannes Mair Copyright © 2015 Alessandra Barassi et al. his is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Background. Evidence is accumulating in favour of a link between erectile dysfunction (ED) and coronary artery diseases. We investigated the presence of cardiac injury in patients who have had arteriogenic and nonarteriogenic ED using the hs-Tn levels. Methods. he diagnosis of ED was based on the International Index of Erectile Function 5-questionnaire (IIF-5) and patients were classiied as arteriogenic (A-ED,  = 40), nonarteriogenic (NA-ED,  = 48), and borderline (BL-ED,  = 32) patients in relation to the results of echo-color-Doppler examination of cavernous arteries. he level of hs-TnT and hs-TnI was measured in 120 men with a history of ED of less than one year with no clinical evidence of cardiac ischemic disease. Results. he levels of both hs-TnT and hs-TnI were within the reference range and there was no signiicant ( > 0.05) diference between patients of the three groups. he hs-CRP values were higher in A-ED men compared with NA-ED ( = 0.048) but not compared with BL-ED ( = 0.136) and negatively correlated with IIF-5 ( = −0.480;  = 0.031). Conclusions. In ED patients of the three groups the measurement of hs-Tn allows us to exclude the presence of cardiac involvement at least when the history of ED is less than one year and the men are without atherosclerotic risk factors. 1. Introduction Erectile dysfunction (ED) is now considered an early man- ifestation of a largely subclinical systemic vascular disorder afecting also the penile arteries. Indeed, ED shares with other vascular diseases, mainly coronary artery disease (CAD), common risk factors [1–4] and a similar pathogenic involve- ment of the NO pathway that leads to early impairment of endothelium-dependent vasodilatation and late obstructive vascular changes [5–8]. Cardiac troponin T (TnT) and troponin I (TnI) are the markers recommended for diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction [9]. With the implementation of assays with improved analytical sensitivity (hs-Tn), the reliable determi- nation of troponin, even at concentrations below the previ- ously deined 99th percentile values, has become possible. he limit of detection for the newest generation of hs-Tn assay is 10- to 100-fold lower than that of traditional assays [10]. Although an increase in troponin concentration classically indicates myocyte necrosis, several cellular processes other than necrosis can induce troponin release. Among them is increased cell wall permeability which may occur because of ischemia [11]. Test-induced ischemia has been associated with a quantiiable increase of troponin detectable with an Hindawi Publishing Corporation Disease Markers Volume 2015, Article ID 548951, 6 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/548951