[Effect of altitude on blood oxygenation during sleep in patients with bronchial asthma]. / Wplyw wysokosci na utlenowanie krwi w czasie snu u chorych na astme oskrzelowa.

The aim of our study was to investigate the severity of overnight arterial blood desaturations in patients with asthma at the altitude of 3200 meters above sea level. 12 asthmatics and 12 healthy controls were investigated. Three overnight pulsoximetries were performed in all subjects, one at the lowland and on the 1st and 5th night at the altitude. Mean SaO2 at the lowland was significantly lower in asthmatics than in the controls (p < 0.01). After the ascent to high altitude severe fall in mean SaO2 was noted in both groups (from 94.3% to 85.8% in asthmatics and from 97.1% to 88.7% in controls) (p < 0.001 for both groups). After few days of acclimatization mean SaO2 rose to 88.8% in asthmatics and to 91.3% in controls, but was still significantly lower than at the lowland (p < 0.001 for both groups). At the altitude differences in mean SaO2 between two groups were not statistically significant. We conclude that severity of overnight desaturations at high altitude do not vary between asthmatics with impaired respiratory function and healthy subjects.

[The medical disability evaluation of patients with pulmonary hypertension and cor pulmonale]. / Vrachebno-trudovaia ékspertiza bol'nykh legochnoi gipertoniei i legochnym serdtsem.

The purpose of the study was to elaborate criteria for the assessment of the severity of pulmonary hypertension and cor pulmonale in patients with chronic bronchitis and to give rationale for expert medical evaluation of the working capacity of such patients. 94 patients (89 males and 5 females) aged 20 to 60 with chronic bronchitis were examined. Basing on the clinical, x-ray, ECG, VCG and echocardiography data, the gravity of cor pulmonale was assessed by the degree of right ventricular hypertrophy (absent, mild, marked, dramatically marked), changes in the right ventricular echo dimensions and the stage of heart failure, and by the lung vital capacity (in percent of the predicted value). The rationale for expert medical evaluation of patients with associated cor pulmonale and chronic bronchitis is described.

[Clinico-functional characteristics of pulmonary heart disease developing at high altitude as a result of chronic bronchitis]. / Kliniko-funktsional'nye osobennosti legochnogo serdtsa, razvivshegosia v usloviiakh vysokogor'ia v rezul'tate khronicheskogo bronkhita.

It was shown that the high-altitude conditions of the Pamirs and Tien Shan (2800-3600 m above the sea-level) modified the clinicofunctional signs and a course of the cor pulmonale (CP) in chronic bronchitis. CP was detected in the examined patients with chronic bronchitis. As compared to the conditions of foothills (760 m) CP in mountain-dwellers was more noticeable in terms of the signs of pulmonary arterial hypertension, right ventricular hypertrophy developed in them 5 years earlier. The first obvious signs of cardiac decompensation developed in the presence of moderate (noticeable at the foothills) right ventricular hypertrophy and were often (51.5% of the patients against 21.6% under the foothills conditions) accompanied by disturbance of cardiac rhythm and conduction.