Pulmonary Function Parameters Changes at Different Altitudes in Healthy Athletes

Hypoxia and hypocapnia can cause broncho-constriction in human subjects, and thiscould have a bearing on performance at high altitude. the object of this study was toexamine how pulmonary ventilatory functions during high-altitude trekking.this study is a cohort study on spirometric parameters at different altitudes. fifty sixhealthy male volunteers from a university student population were enrolled in the study (ages22.9(plus-minus)5.3 years). pulmonary function was assessed with a spirolab ii in all participants beforeascending at baseline (1150 meter), after ascending at different altitudes (2850, 4150 meter),and after descending at sea level during a 3-day trek in sialan mount.this study indicates that in an actual trek, ascending results in significant decrease inforced vital capacity (fvc). fvc significantly decreased with increasing altitude frombaseline level and at the sea level it was significantly less than baseline level. peak flowincreased with increasing altitude from baseline (1150 m) to 2850 m and decreased withdecreasing altitude (p(less than)0.01). maximal midexpiratory flow rate (fef 25-75%) and forcedexpiratory volume in 1 second to forced expiratory volume ratio (fevl.0%) significantlyincreased with increasing and decreasing altitude from baseline level (p(less than)0.001). there was nosignificant change in fevi.it could be concluded that changes in some pulmonary ventilatory parameters wereproportional to the magnitude of change in altitude during a high-altitude trek. thesechanges are significant at the beginning of ascending.