Nocturnal Penile Tumescences in Normal Korean Adult Males with Relation of Age

Lee, Sung Won; Kim, Chun Il; Kim, Kwang Sae; Lee, Sung Choon

Abstract

Nocturnal penile tumescence (NPT) evaluation is the single most important step and widely used technique for the differential diagnosis between psychogenic and organic impotence. It is based on findings that male subjects have erection in association with rapid eye movement sleep. A normal pattern of NPT indicates that neural supply, vascular supply and penile structures are intact. Nocturnal penile tumescence minitoring (NPTM) in the abscence of rigidity evaluation in the assessment of the impotent male is of questionable value, but we conducted a study of NPT in 41 healthy male subjects aged 20 to 69 by means of portable tumistore NPT monitor to provide normative data for clinical utility in diagnosis and prognosis of impotence. The results indicate that NPT occurs consistently in a healthy male population and its expression is significantly affected by age.