RESUMO
A clinical syndrome identical to the chronic mountain sickness of the Andes occurs commonly in Lhasa, Tibet. It affects, almost exclusively, the immigrant Han population and develops after an average of 15 years' residence at high altitude. The early symptoms are attributable to polycythaemia--headache, dizziness, loss of memory and fatigue being prominent. In the later stages of the disease, dyspnoea and peripheral oedema develop. Haemodynamic investigations show pulmonary hypertension with a normal cardiac output and dilatation of the right ventricle in the long-established case. Respiratory gas studies provide evidence of alveolar underventilation and ventilation: perfusion inhomogeneity. Both clinical and investigatory data suggest that the earlier stages of the disease are dominated by polycythaemia, while cardiopulmonary involvement increases with the duration of the disease. The disease is rare in women and uncommon in Tibetans. Cigarette smoking appears to be a contributory factor.
Assuntos
Doença da Altitude/epidemiologia , Hipóxia/epidemiologia , Adulto , Idoso , Doença da Altitude/diagnóstico , Doença da Altitude/fisiopatologia , Dióxido de Carbono/sangue , China/epidemiologia , Doença Crônica , Ecocardiografia , Eletrocardiografia , Feminino , Hemodinâmica , Humanos , Masculino , Pessoa de Meia-Idade , Oxigênio/sangue , Radiografia Torácica , Fumar/efeitos adversosRESUMO
A hemorrheologic investigation on 186 healthy native and immigrants at an altitude of 3,658 M above sea level revealed that hemorrheologic indexes are statistically higher in males than in females irrespective of natives or immigrants, except that hemoglobin in male immigrants is higher than in male natives. For females, all indexes in immigrants are higher than in natives. In addition, the difference between males and females may be related to the function of androgen in polycythemia due to oxygen shortage.