PERSPECTIVES
Oxygen and living at altitude
Correspondence to:
Robert C Tasker, Department of Paediatrics, University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine, Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Hills Road, Cambridge CB2 2QQ, UK; rct31@cam.ac.uk
Accepted 21 September 2008
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
San Antonio de los Cobres, Puna region in the Andes in northwest Argentina, altitude 3800 m: pulse oximetry oxyhaemoglobin saturation (SpO2) 84% and heart rate 65 beats per minute – both low for me, and certainly much lower than my level 24 h ago at sea level. I feel fine, but I do seem to be breathing at higher lung volume. My SpO2 is at the expected level for acute homeostasis at altitude (fig 1),1 2 and over the next few days it should improve to the level I would have had, had I stayed at 1600 m.3 What surprises me, though, is my travel companion, who has lived at sea level for the last 20 years, yet has a SpO2 of 93%. Could those Quechuan grandparents really have something to do with this response?
Figure 1 Pulse oximetry oxyhaemoglobin saturation (SpO2) and oxygen content | |||||||||
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