Association of arterial oxygen saturation and acute mountain sickness susceptibility: a meta-analysis

Acute mountain sickness (AMS) is the most common high altitude illnesses experienced during rapid ascent to a higher altitude without prior acclimation. It is mainly characterized by a headache which may be accompanied with nausea, vomiting, anorexia, dizziness, lethargy, fatigue, and sleep disturbance. If not diagnosed and treated in a timely manner, AMS can develop into deadly high altitude pulmonary edema or high altitude cerebral edema. In the previous studies of individual variation in susceptibility to AMS, arterial oxygen saturation (SO2) was identified as being associated with AMS. However, other studies have reported no association between AMS and arterial oxygen saturation. In this study, the association between SO2 and AMS was assessed through a meta-analysis of published data. The literature databases PubMed, Web of Science, LWW, Science Direct, and Embase were queried for papers published before 15 April 2014. A fixed-effects model and a random-effects model were applied (Revman 5.0) on the basis of heterogeneity, and the study quality was assessed in duplicate. Twelve studies with 614 AMS patients and 1,025 control subjects were analyzed. There was a significant association with differences in SO2 and the risk of developing AMS. SO2 values are associated with AMS incidence.