Sildenafil - Multi Faceted Personality

Did any one ever think that "a sexual enhancer" can be a life saving drug for some one?

Few facts about Viagra:
Sildefanil was synthesized by a group of pharmaceutical chemists at Pfizers' research facility in England. It was initially studied for use in hypertension and angina.

Phase I clinical trials suggested that the drug had little effect on angina, but that it could induce marked penile erections. Pfizer therefore decided to market it for erectile dysfunction, rather than for angina. The drug was patented in 1996, approved for use in erectile dysfunction by the US FDA on March 27, 1998, becoming the first oral treatment approved to treat erectile dysfunction in the United States.

Oral Sildenafil in Infants With Persistent Pulmonary Hypertension of the Newborn:

•          Persistent pulmonary hypertension (PPHN) occurs in as many as 6.8 of 1000 live births.

•          Mortality is ∼10% to 20% with high-frequency ventilation,

•          Sildenafil is a phospho diesterase inhibitor type 5 that selectively reduces pulmonary vascular resistance.

Treatment of Severe Altitude Sickness using Viagra:  

•          High altitude can sometimes cause illness, especially in people with existing heart and lung problems. The thinner air or lack of oxygen at higher altitudes can cause blood vessels to constrict. When this occurs within the lungs, the constriction of blood vessels can put more force on the heart, leading to life-threatening heart failure.

•          High-altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE) occurs when high altitude and low air pressure causes fluid to leak from blood vessels and builds up in the lungs, interfering with oxygen exchange.. HAPE has a mortality rate of 44% if untreated. It's triggered by intense physical exertion at high altitudes that people aren't accustomed to.

•          Viagra works by relaxing blood vessels, allowing more blood to flow freely through vessels. The researchers used this drug to block the effects of high altitude on blood vessels on the lung.

Sildenafil in the treatment of pulmonary arterial Hypertension:

•          Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a progressive, and often fatal, debilitating disorder.  The clinical hallmarks of this disease include: 1) progressive breathlessness 2) exertion limitation and 3) frequent decline and failure of the right ventricle.

•          The increased pulmonary artery pressure found in PAH is due to disturbances in key vascular mediator pathways including relative deficiencies of vasodilators

•          Sildenafil is a selective Phosphodiesterase-5 inhibitor that has been reported to be a potent pulmonary vasodilator. Sildenafil selectively inhibits phosphodiesterase 5 (PDE5 is abundant in pulmonary and penile tissue) which leads to stabilization of cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP).  cGMP is a second messenger of nitric oxide (NO). Stabilization of cGMP results in increasing nitric oxide (NO) at the tissue level leading to pulmonary vessel vasodilatation.

•          Sildenafil administered orally has been shown to have beneficial effects in patients with PAH. 

On a whole the viagra(Sildefanil) is found to be a potent life saver in many aspects and doctors found it to be a very attractive drug for cardiac conditions and lowering blood pressure and noticed that when they prescribe Viagra to patients with a heart condition it actually improves their heart condition as well as their erectile dysfunction.

•          The problem doctors see in premature babies with breathing difficulties is - although oxygen can be blown into their lungs to help them, there isn't enough blood supply to various areas of the lungs to take the oxygen around the rest of the body. What Sildenafil does is open up the blood vessels so they can capture the oxygen and take it around the body

Thus Sildenafil or Viagra as it is popularly known world over, has shown multi faceted personality over the years and helped the medical community in combating severe diseases and ailments.  As time passes, research may unfold cures to many more ailments through the use of Viagra.