Objectives: The observational ‘Feeling Hot’ study aims to evaluate the feasibility of employing overnight penile temperature measurements for the detection of nocturnal erections, thereby... Show moreObjectives: The observational ‘Feeling Hot’ study aims to evaluate the feasibility of employing overnight penile temperature measurements for the detection of nocturnal erections, thereby contributing to the advancement and modernization of a non-invasive diagnostic system for erectile dysfunction. Subjects/Patients and Methods: In this proof-of-concept study, 10 healthy men aged 20–25 were recruited, following the methodology outlined in the ‘Staying Hot’ study by Torenvlied et al. Participants underwent ambulatory overnight penile temperature measurements concurrent with RigiScan recordings. Key outcome measures included baseline and peak penile temperatures during RigiScan-annotated nocturnal erections. Reference measurements of the thigh temperature were also taken to assess nocturnal temperature variations. Results: Statistically significant penile temperature increases (p = 0.008, n = 9) were observed during nocturnal erections, with an average elevation of 1.47C noted during the initial erections. This underscores the practical utility of penile temperature measurements in detecting erection onset. Challenges arose in accurately determining erection duration and subsequent erection onsets due to the persistence of elevated temperatures following initial erections, termed the ‘Staying Hot effect’. Reference thigh temperature measurements aided in addressing this challenge. Conclusion: Examining overnight penile temperature alongside simultaneous RigiScan recordings has yielded valuable insights into the viability of using the temperature methodology for detecting nocturnal erections. The ‘Feeling Hot’ study findings demonstrate significant penile temperature elevation during nocturnal erections in healthy young men, highlighting the potential of integrating this measurement methodology into the design of a modernized tool for ambulatory erectile dysfunction diagnostics. Further development of an advanced sensor system to comprehensively assess erection duration and quality is essential for enhancing clinical applicability. Show less
Objective: The objective of this study is to assess the impact of overnight environ-mental conditions on erectile penile temperature within a controlled setting, with theaim of investigating the... Show moreObjective: The objective of this study is to assess the impact of overnight environ-mental conditions on erectile penile temperature within a controlled setting, with theaim of investigating the feasibility of using temperature measurements for nocturnalerection detection in erectile dysfunction diagnostics.Subjects/patients and methods: We conducted a proof-of-concept study involving10 healthy male participants aged 20 to 25. The study was carried out at the Depart-ment of Urology, St. Antonius Ziekenhuis, the Netherlands. Penile temperaturethermistor measurements were taken during visually aroused erections of partici-pants in naked state and in simulated overnight condition (underwear and blankets).Main outcome variables were peak and baseline temperature during erectile periods.To minimize the impact of differences in erectile strength and duration between con-secutive measurements, we applied randomization to the order of the environmentalconditions.Results: We observed a significant increase in penile temperature during erection inboth the naked ( p < 0.01) and simulated overnight condition (p < 0.01). The meantemperature increase was 1.70 and 0.67C, respectively. While penile temperature returned to baseline immediately after naked erections, the ‘Staying Hot effect’ wasnoted in the simulated overnight condition measurements, where the temperatureremained elevated at peak temperature for the entire 30-min period following theerection.Conclusions: The findings from this study indicate that the penile temperature notonly significantly increases during naked sexual arousal but is also detectable undersimulated overnight conditions. This underscores the potential of using temperature measurements for nocturnal erection detection, representing a crucial initial step indeveloping a modernized, non-invasive sensor system for ambulatory erectile dys-function diagnostics. Further research, including an overnight study, is needed to gain Show less
