Viagra may help some ill children

DALLAS – Children suffering from a rare, fatal lung disease were able to walk farther and breathe more easily after taking the impotence pill Viagra, a study suggests.

Researchers say the use of Viagra to treat these very sick children, suffering from pulmonary hypertension, needs more study. But they called early results promising.

A week ago, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved using the main ingredient in Viagra for adults with pulmonary hypertension. The disease, which has no cure, causes continuous high blood pressure in the artery that carries blood from the heart to small vessels in the lungs.

The study, published online in the American Heart Association journal Circulation on Monday, was funded by Pfizer, the maker of Viagra. Researchers gave 14 children with pulmonary hypertension – boys and girls 5 to 18 years old – various doses of Viagra for a year.

At the end of the year, the average distance they could walk in six minutes increased by 508 feet, the reseachers said, and they could breathe more easily as resistance in the pulmonary arteries dropped.