Impotence Drug May Help Lung Disease

A drug used to treat impotence may also help people with a scarring lung disease, new research suggests. The study focused on sildenafil, the drug used in Viagra. But people in the study received a lower dose, sold under the brand name Revatio. The 180 men and women in the study had advanced pulmonary fibrosis. This disease causes scarring of the lungs that hinders breathing. It keeps getting worse, and there’s no good treatment. People were randomly divided into two groups. One group took sildenafil for 12 weeks. The other group received placebo (fake) pills. After 12 weeks, people in both groups were able to walk about the same distance in six minutes. But people in the sildenafil group did better in some measures of breathing ability. The New England Journal of Medicine published the study online. HealthDay News wrote about it May 18.