TY - CHAP M1 - Book, Section TI - Altitude Illness A1 - Basnyat, Buddha A1 - Tabin, Geoffrey A2 - Jameson, J. Larry A2 - Fauci, Anthony S. A2 - Kasper, Dennis L. A2 - Hauser, Stephen L. A2 - Longo, Dan L. A2 - Loscalzo, Joseph PY - 2018 T2 - Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine, 20e AB - Mountains cover one-fifth of the earth’s surface; 140 million people live permanently at altitudes ≥2500 m, and 100 million people travel to high-altitude locations each year. Skiers in the Alps or Aspen; tourists to La Paz, Ladakh, or Lahsa; religious pilgrims to Kailash-Manasarovar or Gosainkunda; trekkers and climbers to Kilimanjaro, Aconcagua, or Everest; miners working in high-altitude sites in South America; and military personnel deployed to high-altitude locations are all at risk of developing acute mountain sickness (AMS), high-altitude cerebral edema (HACE), high-altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE), and other altitude-related problems. AMS is the benign form of altitude illness, whereas HACE and HAPE are life-threatening. Altitude illness is likely to occur above 2500 m but has been documented even at 1500–2500 m. In the Mount Everest region of Nepal, ~50% of trekkers who walk to altitudes >4000 m over ≥5 days develop AMS, as do 84% of people who fly directly to 3860 m. The incidences of HACE and HAPE are much lower than that of AMS, with estimates in the range of 0.1–4%. Finally, reentry HAPE, which in the past was generally limited to highlanders (long-term residents of altitudes >2500 m) in the Americas, is now being seen in Himalayan and Tibetan highlanders—and often misdiagnosed as a viral illness—as a result of recent rapid air, train, and motorable-road access to high-altitude settlements. SN - PB - McGraw-Hill Education CY - New York, NY Y2 - 2024/03/28 UR - accesspharmacy.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=1155960843 ER -