title: Clinical practice: Acute high-altitude illnesses.
abstract: A 45-year-old healthy man wishes to climb Mount Kilimanjaro (5895 m) in a 5-day period, starting at 1800 m. The results of a recent exercise stress test were normal; he runs 10 km 4 or 5 times per week and finished a marathon in less than 4 hours last year. He wants to know how he can prevent becoming ill at high altitude and whether training or sleeping under normobaric hypoxic conditions in the weeks before the ascent would be helpful. What would you advise?
authors.affiliation: University Clinic, Department of Internal Medicine, Division VII Sports Medicine, Heidelberg, Germany. peter.bartsch@med.uni-heidelberg.de
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bärtsch
authors.forename: Erik R
authors.initials: ER
authors.lastname: Swenson
mesh_terms: D000064:Acclimatization / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D000086:Acetazolamide / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000009:adverse effects; D000208:Acute Disease; D000532:Altitude Sickness / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000628:therapy; D001929:Brain Edema / Q000209:etiology / Q000628:therapy; D003907:Dexamethasone / Q000627:therapeutic use; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009051:Mountaineering; D011654:Pulmonary Edema / Q000209:etiology / Q000628:therapy; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors
chemical_list: D003907:Dexamethasone; D000086:Acetazolamide