Viagra Drug May Help Improve Exercise Capacity in Pulmonary
Fibrosis Patients
Newswise — UCLA researchers have found that Viagra may help patients with
idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, an incurable disease characterized by progressive
scarring in the lungs, which often leads to a lung transplant.
Published in the March issue of the journal Chest, the research shows
that more than half of the patients treated with Viagra, also known medically as
Sildenafil, improved their walking distance by at least 20 percent during a
standard test to measure lung function.
“Over five million worldwide suffer from this devastating disease, so we are
hopeful that this drug may prove an effective therapy for pulmonary fibrosis,”
said the study’s principal investigator, Dr. David A. Zisman, medical director
of UCLA’s Interstitial Lung Disease Program and assistant professor of pulmonary
and critical care medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
Many patients with pulmonary fibrosis also have pulmonary hypertension, which
constricts arteries and lessens blood flow to the lungs, resulting in diminished
lung capacity and breathing difficulties. According to Zisman, Sildenafil may
help breathing by opening or dilating blood vessels to allow more blood flow to
the lungs.
In this pilot study, 14 idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis patients initially took
a standard six-minute walking test. All patients were then given oral Sildenafil
therapy for three months, followed by a second walking test to gauge performance
changes.
Researchers noted that 57 percent of the patients improved their walking
distance by 20 percent or more. The average improvement in walking distance was
49 meters (161 feet).
Eleven patients completed the study. Only two patients experienced side
effects and had to stop the medication — one due to diarrhea and the other due
to abnormally low blood pressure.
“In this small pilot study, the drug was well-tolerated,” said Zisman. “The
next step is to confirm this finding in a large, randomized clinical trial.”
The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health.