Hypoxic ventilatory response in successful extreme altitude climbers

A very high ventilatory response to hypoxia is believed necessary to reach extreme altitude without oxygen. Alternatively, the excessive ventilation could be counterproductive by exhausting the ventilatory reserve early on.

To test these alternatives, 11 elite climbers (2004 Everest-K2 Italian Expedition) were evaluated as follows: 1) at sea level, and 2) at 5,200?m, after 15 days of acclimatisation at altitude. Resting oxygen saturation, minute ventilation, breathing rate, hypoxic ventilatory response, maximal voluntary ventilation, ventilatory reserve (at oxygen saturation?=?70%) and two indices of ventilatory efficiency were measured.

Everest and K2 summits were reached 29 and 61 days, respectively, after the last measurement. Five climbers summited without oxygen, the other six did not, or succeeded with oxygen (two climbers). At sea level, all data were similar. At 5,200?m, the five summiters without oxygen showed lower resting minute ventilation, breathing rate and ventilatory response to hypoxia, and higher ventilatory reserve and ventilatory efficiency, compared to the other climbers.

Thus, the more successful climbers had smaller responses to hypoxia during acclimatisation to 5,200?m, but, as a result, had greater available reserve for the summit. A less sensitive hypoxic response and a greater ventilatory efficiency might increase ventilatory reserve and allow sustainable ventilation in the extreme hypoxia at the summit.

 
Citation proposal
Luciano Bernardi (Clinica Medica 2, Università di Pavia - IRCCS Ospedale S. Matteo,) - Annalisa Cogo (Centro Studi Biomedici Applicati allo Sport - Università di Ferrara) - Luca Pomidori (Centro Studi Biomedici Applicati allo Sport - Università di Ferrara) - Annette Schneider (Dept of Anaesthesiology, University Medical Center, Regensburg, Germany) - E. Paolucci () (2006) . Hypoxic ventilatory response in successful extreme altitude climbers. https://geoportal.mountaingenius.org/geonetwork/srv/api/records/a7ba8f5d-7dd6-41a2-aa8f-49891cb4c81c
 

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a7ba8f5d-7dd6-41a2-aa8f-49891cb4c81c   XML
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eng
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  • altitude
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  • SHARE
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  • hypoxia
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  • ventilation
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  • ventilatory control
Keywords ( Theme )
  • ventilatory efficiency
 
 

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2006-01-01T00:00:00
 

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Clinica Medica 2, Università di Pavia - IRCCS Ospedale S. Matteo,
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lbern1ps@unipv.it
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Centro Studi Biomedici Applicati allo Sport - Università di Ferrara
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annalisa.cogo@unife.it
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Centro Studi Biomedici Applicati allo Sport - Università di Ferrara
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pmdlcu@unife.it
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Dept of Anaesthesiology, University Medical Center, Regensburg, Germany
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Clinica Medica 2, Università di Pavia - IRCCS Ospedale S. Matteo,
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lbern1ps@unipv.it
Organisation name
Centro Studi Biomedici Applicati allo Sport - Università di Ferrara
Email
annalisa.cogo@unife.it
Organisation name
Centro Studi Biomedici Applicati allo Sport - Università di Ferrara
Email
pmdlcu@unife.it
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Dept of Anaesthesiology, University Medical Center, Regensburg, Germany
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Email
 

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Ev-K2-CNR
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metadata@evk2cnr.org
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2011-06-21T16:21:11
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eng
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