Primal Health Databank: Study
| Entry No: | 0264 |
| Title: | Augmented vasoreactivity in adult life associated with perinatal vascular insult |
| Author(s): | Sartori C, Alleman Y, et al. |
| Reference: | Lancet 1999;353: 2205-07 |
| Place of Study: | Switzerland |
| Abstract: | A team of Swiss researchers reviewed the records of all children admitted to the neonatal care unit of the Lausanne University Hospital for Children between 1972 and 1979. They identified 15 subjects born near term who had been in a persistent state of hypoxemia even during ventilation with oxygen. This was interpreted as a sign of pulmonary hypertension during the first week of life. Ten of them (3 women and 7 men) accepted to participate in a study when they were in their twenties (mean age 21). They were compared with ten healthy young volunteers (4 women and 6 men) who were part of the same age group born in Lausanne, and who had had no complications at birth. Some weeks after a “baseline examination” at altitude 580 metres (that is to say atmospheric pressure 710 mm Hg), the participants ascended in groups of two to four from altitude 1130 m to altitude 4559 m (that is to say to atmospheric pressure 440 mg Hg ) within a period of 22 hours. They were transported by cable car to altitude 3200 m; climbed to altitude 3611 m, where there stayed overnight before climbing to the high-altitude research laboratory. The participants who had had pulmonary hypertension during the week following birth had a greater increase in pulmonary-artery pressure at high altitude. These findings suggest that a transient insult to the pulmonary circulation in the perinatal period leaves a persistent imprint. |
| Keyword(s): | altitude, anoxia, experimental Primal Health research, hypoxia, neonatal pulmonary hypertension |
| Discussion: | This unusual study cannot be compared with any other related research. |
| See Also: | No related entries mentioned for this entry |
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