Determinants of Erectile Dysfunction Risk in a Large Series of Italian Men Attending Andrology Clinics

Objective: To assess determinants of ED in men who asked for a free of charge andrologic consultation during a week focused on andrologic prevention in Italy. Methods: Men were invited to attend 178 participating andrology centers for a free of charge visit for counselling about urologic or andrologic conditions. Data were recorded with a simple questionnaire used by all centers. Results: 2499 (19.9%) were diagnosed having ED. The frequency of ED increased with age, ranging from 4.6% in men under 25 years, to 37.6% in men over 74. In comparison with men with primary education the OR of ED was 0.8 (95% CI 0.7-0.9) in men with secondary education and 0.7 (95% CI 0.6-0.9) in those with university degree. After adjusting for age, the risk of ED was significantly higher in men consuming more than 3 glasses/day of alcoholic drinking (OR 1.4, 95% CI 1.1-2.0), in subjects smoking more than 10 cigarettes/day (OR 1.2, CI 95% 1.1-1.4) and in former smokers (OR 1.2, CI 95% 1.1-1.4). Men performing at least two hours per week of physical activity had a decreased risk of ED (OR 0.8, CI 95% 0.7-0.9). We found an increased risk of ED in men with diabetes (OR 1.2, 95% CI 1.1-1.4), hypertension (OR 1.3, 95% CI 1.1-1.4), cardiopathy (OR 1.5, 95% CI 1.3-1.8) and hypercholesterolemia (OR 1.4, 95% CI 1.2-1.6). Conclusions: This study provides further data on determinants of ED risk in a large data set and underlines the relationship between ED and cardiovascular diseases. \ua9 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Transverse momentum spectra of charged particles in proton-proton collisions at 1as=900 GeV with ALICE at the LHC

The inclusive charged particle transverse momentum distribution is measured in proton-proton collisions at s=900 GeV at the LHC using the ALICE detector. The measurement is performed in the central pseudorapidity region (|\u3b7|<0.8) over the transverse momentum range 0.15<10 GeV/c. The correlation between transverse momentum and particle multiplicity is also studied. Results are presented for inelastic (INEL) and non-single-diffractive (NSD) events. The average transverse momentum for |\u3b7|<0.8 is \u3008pT\u3009INEL=0.483\ub10.001 (stat.)\ub10.007 (syst.) GeV/c and \u3008pT\u3009NSD=0.489\ub10.001 (stat.)\ub10.007 (syst.) GeV/c, respectively. The data exhibit a slightly larger \u3008pT\u3009 than measurements in wider pseudorapidity intervals. The results are compared to simulations with the Monte Carlo event generators PYTHIA and PHOJET. \ua9 2010