Increased incidence of erectile dysfunction (ED) has been reported among patients with sleep apnea (SA). However, this association has not been confirmed in a large-scale study. We therefore performed a population-based cohort study using Taiwan National Health Insurance (NHI) database to investigate the association of SA and ED. From the database of one million representative subjects randomly sampled from individuals enrolled in the NHI system in 2010, we identified adult patients having SA and excluded those having a diagnosis of ED prior to SA. From these suspected SA patients, those having SA diagnosis after polysomnography were defined as probable SA patients. The dates of their first SA diagnosis were defined as their index dates. Each SA patient was matched to 30 randomly-selected, age-matched control subjects without any SA diagnosis. The control subjects were assigned index dates as their corresponding SA patients, and were ensured having no ED diagnosis prior to their index dates. Totally, 4,835 male patients with suspected SA (including 1,946 probable SA patients) were matched to 145,050 control subjects (including 58,380 subjects matched to probable SA patients). The incidence rate of ED was significantly higher in probable SA patients as compared with the corresponding control subjects (5.7 vs. 2.3 per 1000 patient-year; adjusted incidence rate ratio = 2.0 [95% CI: 1.8-2.2], p<0.0001). The cumulative incidence was also significantly higher in the probable SA patients (p<0.0001). In multivariable Cox regression analysis, probable SA remained a significant risk factor for the development of ED after adjusting for age, residency, income level and comorbidities (hazard ratio = 2.0 [95%CI: 1.5-2.7], p<0.0001). In line with previous studies, this population-based large-scale study confirmed an increased ED incidence in SA patients in Chinese population. Physicians need to pay attention to the possible underlying SA while treating ED patients.

PurposeLung cancer with malignant peritoneal carcinomatosis and malignant ascites is rare, often indicates the terminal stage, and is refractory to treatment. The median survival time of lung cancer patients with malignant ascites has been reported to be as short as 15 days to 2 months in retrospective studies.MethodsWe reviewed all lung cancer patients who had cytologically or pathologically proven malignant ascites and received aggressive therapy including chemotherapy, anti‐angiogenesis agents and target therapy at a Taiwan hospital from January 2015 to December 2017. In addition, we searched PubMed using the terms “lung cancer,” “peritoneal carcinomatosis” and “malignant ascites” to find other studies reporting experience of such treatment.ResultsThree consecutive lung cancer patients with malignant ascites (3/265, 1.13%) were included in this case series study, all of whom received bevacizumab with three other drugs (erlotinib, afatinib and gemcitabine). All of the patients showed a good response to treatment with a marked decrease in ascites. Two of the patients had a long progression‐free survival time of more than 5 months. In the literature review, several cases reports and case series documented the treatment efficacy, however no prospective or retrospective studies reported treatment strategies.ConclusionsAggressive treatment for lung cancer with malignant ascites is encouraged when possible. Bevacizumab‐based treatment may serve as one effective treatment strategy for non‐squamous cell lung carcinoma with malignant ascites. Further prospective trials are urgently needed.