The value of dynamic color duplex scanning in the diagnosis of venogenic impotence.

To determine the value of color duplex scanning in the diagnosis of venogenic impotence we examined 53 patients. The control population consisted of 26 psychogenically impotent men and 8 normal potent men who all had a firm erection after pharmacological stimulation. There was no significant difference in the values of duplex parameters between these 2 groups. The venous leak population was characterized by a bad erectile response to pharmacological stimulation despite a good arterial compliance and by a persistent diastolic flow as shown by duplex scanning. There was a significant difference with the control population for the parameters of resistance index after 10 minutes (p = 0.001), minimal resistance index (p = 0.016) and corporeal volume increase (p = 0.010). There was a good correlation between the results of duplex scanning and those of pharmacocavernosography-pharmacocavernosometry (93%). We conclude that dynamic color duplex scanning can be used as a screening procedure to diagnose significant venous leakage in an objective manner with the resistance index.