Dihydrotestosterone treatment in men with coronary artery disease. II. Influence on myocardial ischemia and left ventricle.

The effect of transdermal dihydrotestosterone on left ventricle mass and its systolic and diastolic function as well as on the results of treadmill stress test was assessed in eleven males with coronary artery disease. DHT treatment for 3 months resulted in significant decrease in isovolumetric relaxation time (0.150+/-0.37 s vs. 0.135+/-0.03 s; p < 0.05) indicating the improvement of left ventricle diastolic function. Left ventricle mass and systolic function indices remained unchanged. There was improvement in myocardial ischemia, time to 1 mm ST segment depression increased (p < 0.05) and ST/HR slope decreased (p < 0.01). Correlation coefficients between testosterone concentration at the beginning of the study and differences in selected parameters of ECG stress test were as follows: for T and increased total exercise time (r= -0.83, p=0.002), for T and increased maximum workload (r= -0.84, p=0.001), for T and increased time to 1 mm ST segment depression (r= -0.75, p=0.009) and for T and decreased ST/HR slope (r=0.68, p=0.02).