Impotence with Periodic Leg Movement and Penile Expansion without Rigidity

Kim, Uk; Oh, Tae Hee; Yang, Kwi Cheol; Suh, Jun Kyu

Abstract

Sleep may be disrupted by a variety of undiagnosed sleep disorders including sleep apnea and periodic leg movement, which are of special concern because they may disrupt sleep without the knowledge of the patient. Therefore, sleep disorder screening is necessary for the accurate interpretation of nocturnal penile tumescence data. Failure to determine the presence of sleep apnea or periodic leg movements during sleep may result in an apparently abnormal nocturnal penile tumescence that does not accurately reflect the erectile capacity of the patient. In addition, penile expansion without significant rigidity could be misinterpretated as being within the range of normal activity and could, thereby, be responsible for a false diagnosis of psychogenic impotence when simultaneous measurement of penile rigidity is not performed. Herein, we introduce examples of periodic leg movement in sleep and penile expansion without significant rigidity which were detected using polysomnographic NPTM with EEG, EOG, EKG, anterior tibialis EMG, tumescence monitoring and rigiscan.