Symptoms of acute mountain sickness in Sherpas exposed to extremely high altitude

Droma, Yunden, Masayuki Hanaoka, Buddha Basnyat, Amit Arjyal, Pritam Neupane, Anil Pandit, Dependra Sharma, and Keishi Kubo. Symptoms of acute mountain sickness in Sherpas exposed to extremely high altitude. High Alt. Med. Biol. 7:312-314, 2006.--The aim of this field interview was to investigate the current state of affairs concerning acute mountain sickness (AMS) in high-altitude residents, specifically the Sherpas at 3440 m above sea level, when they are exposed rapidly to altitudes significantly higher than their residing altitudes. Out of 105 Sherpas (44 men and 61 women, 31.2 +/- 0.8 yr), 104 had mountain-climbing experiences to 5701.4 +/- 119.1-m altitude in average 3.5 times each year. On the other hand, only 68 out of 111 non-Sherpas (29.9 +/- 0.8 yr) had experience of 1.4 +/- 1.5 climbs to an average 2688.6 +/- 150.4-m altitude in their mountaineering histories (p < 0.0001). Among the 104 Sherpas, 45 (43.3%) complained of at least one AMS symptom (headache, gastrointestinal symptoms, weakness, dizziness, and difficulty sleeping) in their experiences of mountaineering at an average 5518.9 +/- 195.9-m altitude. And 16 out of the 68 non-Sherpas (23.5%) reported the AMS symptoms at a mean altitude of 2750.0 +/- 288.8 m. Moreover, we also noticed that the Sherpa women showed a significantly higher Sa(O(2) ) (93.9 +/- 0.2%) than did Sherpa men (92.4 +/- 0.3%, p = 0.0001) at an altitude of 3440 m. The brief field interview evidenced that Sherpas might suffer from AMS when exposed to altitudes significantly higher than their residing altitude.