FINALLY A GOOD EXCUSE FOR USING THE ''BLUE' Pill!

Viagra May Help Muscular Dystrophy Patients

Study Suggests Erectile-Dysfunction Drug May Boost Circulation, Help Heart

Though young boys may seem like unlikely candidates for treatment with Viagra, new research in mice suggests that the drug -- usually prescribed for erectile dysfunction -- may one day be used to minimize heart problems for pre-teen and adolescent boys with Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

Since Viagra (sildenafil) was approved for erectile dysfunction in 1998, researchers have identified a number of other conditions that benefit from the famed "little blue pill," such as pulmonary hypertension, heart problems in severely premature infants, and decreased circulation in patients with gangrene. New research suggests it might even help treat prostate cancer.

Now Viagra has the potential to become a heart helper for young boys who are just beginning to suffer from cardiac degeneration due to Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD).

Duchenne muscular dystrophy is a degenerative, muscle-wasting disease that usually affects young boys, though girls can be carriers of the disease. It causes progressive muscle weakness and loss, usually confining patients to a wheelchair by around age ten. It often leads to death before age 30. In later stages, degeneration of the diaphragm and heart can lead to potentially fatal breathing complications and heart failure.

With the help of better treatments for and control of these respiratory problems, many patients are now living into their late twenties and thirties -- long enough to suffer from cardiac complications seen in very late stages of the disease, says Stanley Froehner, a professor of physiology and biophysics at the University of Washington, Seattle, and a co-author on the study.

"It's a disease of skeletal muscular degeneration, but there's also a significant impact on the heart. Some of the boys [with DMD] in the past have died of cardiac failure, but it's becoming more common now that patients are living longer," Froehner says.

COURTNEY HUTCHISON, ABC News Medical Unit