Role of the vascular diagnostic laboratory in the evaluation of male impotence.

Penile systolic pressures, penile volume waveforms, and postischemic reactive hyperemia were measured in 106 patients (38 potent and 68 impotent). With such testing the vascular laboratory can clearly identify those impotent patients in whom penile blood flow is normal and who would not benefit from direct arterial surgery. Unfortunately, abnormal results give no assurance that ischemia is responsible for a given patient's impotence and a multimodal approach is necessary to further evaluate such patients.