Serious Altitude Illness in Travelers Who Visited a Pre‐Travel Clinic

Croughs, Mieke; Gompel, Alfons Van; Rameckers, Sarah; Ende, Jef Van den

doi:10.1111/jtm.12160

Cited by 12 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…There is some data to suggest that changes in HRV may be linked or even predictive of AMS though this still remains controversial (Lanfranchi et al, 2005;Chen et al, 2008;Koehle et al, 2010;Karinen et al, 2012;Wille et al, 2012;Song et al, 2013). This has important clinical implications as travel to HA has significantly increased in the last 10 years and AMS affects ≥35% of persons traveling to altitudes ≥3000 m (Croughs et al, 2014). Previous studies assessing HRV and its links to HA have been partly undermined by the relatively small sample size.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A comparison of two methods of heart rate variability assessment at high altitude

Boos

Bakker-Dyos

Watchorn

et al. 2016

Clin Physio Funct Imaging

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Heart rate variability (HRV) is a useful index of autonomic function and has been linked to the development of high altitude (HA) related illness. However, its assessment at HA has been undermined by the relative expense and limited portability of traditional HRV devices which have mandated at least a five minute heart rate recording. In this study the portable ithlete™ HRV system, which uses a 55 second recording, was compared with a reference method of HRV which utilises a five minute electrocardiograph recording (CheckMyHeart™). The root mean squares of successive R-R intervals (RMSSD) for each device was converted to a validated HRV score (lnRMSSDx20) for comparison. Twelve healthy volunteers were assessed for HRV using the two devices across seven time points at HA over 10 days. There was no significant change in the HRV values with either the ithlete (P=0.3) or the CheckMyHeart™ (p=0.19) device over the seven altitudes. There was also a strong overall correlation between the ithlete™ and CheckMyHeart™ device (r=0.86; 95% confidence interval: 0.79 to 0.91). The HRV was consistently, though nonsignificantly higher with ithlete™ than with the CheckMyHeart™ device (mean difference [bias] 1.8l; 95% CI -12.3 to 8.5). In summary the ithlete™ and CheckMyHeart™ system provide relatively similar results with good overall agreement at HA.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A comparison of two methods of heart rate variability assessment at high altitude

Boos

Bakker-Dyos

Watchorn

et al. 2016

Clin Physio Funct Imaging

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“…The search yielded a total of 532 articles. After reading the titles and abstracts, 48 articles were selected for full reading and 25 full-text articles met the inclusion criteria, 4,[11][12][13][14][15][16][17][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39] corresponding to periods; for this reason, these two assessments were considered as two independent research studies. 26 The main characteristics for each separate study are presented in Table 1, and a complete overview of the articles is included in the supplementary material (Appendix 3, Table S1).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does age have an impact on acute mountain sickness? A systematic review

Gianfredi

Albano

Basnyat

et al. 2020

Journal of Travel Medicine

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Acute mountain sickness (AMS) is the most common form of illness at high altitude; however, it is still unclear whether age is a protective factor or a risk factor for the development of AMS in travellers. In recent decades, the number of travellers aged 60 years or older is increasing. Thus, the care of older travellers is a long-standing issue in travel medicine. This study aims to systematically review the current state of knowledge related to the effect of old age on the risk of AMS. Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines were used, and the following databases were consulted: PubMed/Medline, Embase, Europe PubMed Central (EuropePMC), World Health Organization Library Database (WHOLIS) and Literatura Latino-Americana e do Caribe em Ciências da Saúde (LILACS). The search yielded a total of 532 articles, of which 25 met the inclusion criteria, corresponding to 26 reports. Although the approaches, methods and quality were heterogeneous among the included studies, 12 reported a negative correlation between AMS prevalence and age, 11 detected no relationship and three papers indicated that the age of AMS subjects was significantly higher than controls. Despite these differences, old age does not seem to be a contraindication for travelling at high altitude. Thus, the presented synthesis will be useful for health professionals in travel medicine to better tailor their appropriate care for older adults who travel to destinations at high altitude.

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“…Of those with serious altitude illness, only 20% descended by the following day. 30 Similarly, a study of 991 travelers to Cusco, Peru (almost half of which were from the U.S.), showed that altitude illness was reported in 48% with severe symptoms in 17%. One in 5 travelers with altitude illness altered their travel plans due to illness.…”

Section: Injury Preventionmentioning

confidence: 96%