High altitude medicine and physiology in the former Soviet Union

The countries of the former Soviet Union have a long history of studies in high-altitude medicine and physiology, but much of the information is difficult to obtain in the West because of the inaccessibility of the journals and the lack of familiarity with the language. The purpose of present review is to improve this situation. In the 1880's, Ivan Sechenov (1829-1905), one of the founders of the Russian school of physiology, introduced the notion of the "inner altitude," that is, how the alveolar Po2 changes with barometric pressure. Later in the 19th century, Russian army physicians made extensive studies of the fitness of soldiers at high altitude and of procedures for improving acclimatization. With the birth of Soviet mountaineering in 1923, a large series of expeditions went to high altitude, first in the Alps, and later in the Caucasus. Nikolay N. Sirotinin (1896-1977) led 9 pre-war research expeditions to Mt. Elbrus and other areas, and, because he thought the alkalosis was partly responsible for mountain sickness, he introduced acid mixtures to be taken orally. Zoia I. Barbashova (1910-1980) made extensive studies of tissue adaptation, especially enzyme activities, in animals exposed to hypoxia. More recently Oleg G. Gazenko (1918-) and his colleagues have carried out extensive studies associated with aviation medicine and the selection of cosmonauts for the Soviet space program. Among many topics, one is the study of how adaptation to one type of physiologic stress (e.g., hypoxia) can improve tolerance to another stress (e.g., acceleration).