Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
6285761 | Neuroscience Letters | 2008 | 5 Pages |
Abstract
In order to describe how high altitude affects the body during a one night stay at 4000Â m experiments were performed in a hypobaric chamber and compared to a study on Dachstein (mountain in Austria, 2700Â m). Ten subjects had to perform a reaction time task at different altitudes. The EEG and ECG were recorded simultaneously. Additionally, the oxygen saturation of the blood was measured at different altitudes and the subjects filled out a Lake Louise questionnaire that describes the degree of altitude mountain sickness (AMS). After elevation from 134Â m to 4000Â m in the hypobaric chamber heart-rate increased from 68.9Â bpm to 81.6Â bpm, RMSSD (root mean square of squared differences of adjacent heart beat intervals) decreased from 54.3Â ms to 33.3Â ms, the LF/HF ratio increased from 2.5 to 3.9 and oxygen saturation decreased to 82.7% after 11Â h at 4000Â m altitude. The Lake Louise Score (LSS) reached 3.4 after one night at 4000Â m. EEG beta activity between 14Â Hz and 18Â Hz was attenuated at 4000Â m and also after return to 134Â m. The results indicate that the subjects were not able to adapt to 4000Â m within 12Â h in the hypobaric chamber. Even after 1Â h after the return to 134Â m all parameters are still affected from the night at 4000Â m altitude. ECG and EEG changes are in line with results obtained at 2700Â m height at Dachstein.
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Authors
Christoph Guger, Stefan Krausert, Wolfgang Domej, Günter Edlinger, Markus Tannheimer,