Men 80 years and younger prescribed erectile dysfunction drugs following a myocardial infarction were 33 percent less likely to die and 40 percent less likely to be hospitalized for HF than men who did not.

Study investigators analyzed the records of 43,000 patients from 2007 to 2013 using a Swedish national database. Of the 7 percent of men prescribed an erectile dysfunction drug, 92 filled prescriptions for phosphodiesterase–5 (PDE5) inhibitors, while 8 percent filled prescriptions for alprostadil.

The results came as a surprise for the study’s lead author, Daniel Peter Andersson, MD, PhD, due to previous associations with increased risk of cardiovascular disease in otherwise healthy men. “From the perspective of a doctor, if a patient asks about erectile dysfunction drugs after a MI and has no contraindications for PDE5 inhibitors, based on these results you can feel safe about prescribing it,” Andersson concludes.

The study will be presented as abstracts during ACC.17.