PURPOSE Little research has been done on the physiological and performance effects of altitude training on team-sport athletes. Therefore, this study examined changes in 2000-m time-trial running performance (TT), hemoglobin mass (Hbmass), and intramuscular carnosine content of elite Australian Football (AF) players after a preseason altitude camp. METHODS Thirty elite AF players completed 19...

High-altitude pulmonary oedema (HAPE) occurs in predisposed individuals at altitudes >2,500 m. Defective alveolar fluid clearance secondary to a constitutive impairment of the respiratory transepithelial sodium transport contributes to its pathogenesis. Hypoxia impairs the transepithelial sodium transport in alveolar epithelial type II cells in vitro. If this impairment is also present in vivo,...

OBJECTIVE Individuals living at high altitudes are reported to have lower stature and also a smaller chest size in relation to their stature. Altitude-related hypobaric hypoxia is considered to be the major cause of these alterations in growth, but adverse socioeconomic and/or other environmental conditions may also have a role in poor growth performance. This study was undertaken to provide gr...

It is a pleasure to dedicate an issue of Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases to high-altitude medicine, and we gratefully thank the editors for giving us this opportunity. The readers will discover that the frontiers of highaltitude medicine are almost infinite and often extend to low altitude. Why is this so? Progress in medicine is intimately linked with the understanding of underlying mechan...

Hypoxia and hypocapnia can cause broncho-constriction in human subjects, and this could have a bearing on performance at high altitude. The object of this study was to examine how pulmonary ventilatory functions during high-altitude trekking. This study is a cohort study on spirometric parameters at different altitudes. Fifty six healthy male volunteers from a university student population were...

We present a complication associated with high altitude of unusual severity. Pronounced facial edema developed in a 27-year-old woman during a trek to Kilimanjaro, Tanzania. The development of facial edema has previously been documented in visitors unaccustomed to high altitude. The possible pathophysiological mechanisms are discussed, and the importance of adhering to recommended ascent rates ...

BACKGROUND Endurance athletes have been using altitude training for decades to improve near sea-level performance. The predominant mechanism is thought to be accelerated erythropoiesis increasing haemoglobin mass (Hb(mass)) resulting in a greater maximal oxygen uptake (VO₂(max)). Not all studies have shown a proportionate increase in VO₂(max) as a result of increased Hb(mass). The aim of this s...

BACKGROUND Theories of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) suggest hypoxia is a common pathway. Infants living at altitude have evidence of hypoxia; however, the association between SIDS incidence and infant residential altitude has not been well studied. METHODS We performed a retrospective cohort study by using data from the Colorado birth and death registries from 2007 to 2012. Infant resi...

Background Species living at high altitude are subject to strong selective pressures due to inhospitable environments (e.g., hypoxia, low temperature, high solar radiation, and lack of biological production), making these species valuable models for comparative analyses of local adaptation. Studies that have examined high-altitude adaptation have identified a vast array of rapidly evolving gene...

PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to quantify the effects of moderate-high altitude on power output, cadence, speed and heart rate during a multi-day cycling tour. METHODS Power output, heart rate, speed and cadence were collected from elite male road cyclists during maximal efforts of 5, 15, 30, 60, 240 and 600 s. The efforts were completed in a laboratory power-profile assessment, and s...