During a heart attack, the heart is deprived of oxygen, which can result in significant damage to heart muscle and tissue. After the attack, most patients require treatment to reduce and repair the damage and improve their chances of survival. With the exception of early reperfusion, there are no available therapies that are truly effective in protecting or repairing such damage clinically.

Rakesh C. Kukreja and Eric Lipman and colleagues compared nitroglycerin with two erectile dysfunction drugs — Viagra®, generically known as sildenafil, and Levitra®, generically known as vardenafil — to determine the effectiveness of each for heart protection following a heart attack. Nitroglycerin is a drug used to treat angina, or chest pain. It is a vasodilator and opens blood vessels in order to improve the flow of blood to a patient’s heart.

“Erectile dysfunction drugs can prevent damage in the heart not only when given before a heart attack, as we discovered previously, but also lessen the injury after the heart attack,” said Kukreja, who is the lead author of the study.

Here’s where an urban legend starts instantly — whether it proves clinically useful or not. I wonder if they’ve tired of being teased on campus about hustling an endless free supply of Viagra and Levitra for their research.