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Higher pulmonary artery pressure in children than in adults upon fast ascent to high altitude

Institutes of ¹ Exercise and Health Sciences, University of Basel, ³ Cardiology, University Hospital Basel, Basel, ² Exercise Physiology, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, and ⁴ Pulmonary Division, University Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.

CORRESPONDENCE: S. Kriemler, Institute of Exercise and Health Sciences, University of Basel, Brüglingen 33, 4052 Basel, Switzerland. Fax: 41 613778768. E-mail: susi.kriemler{at}unibas.ch

Keywords: Children, heredity, high altitude, high-altitude pulmonary oedema, pulmonary artery pressure

Received: December 10, 2007
Accepted March 21, 2008

The response of pulmonary artery pressure to high altitude has not been studied in children. It is also not known whether the individual response is hereditary. Therefore, the response of pulmonary artery pressure to high altitude was measured in pre-pubertal children in comparison to that in their biological fathers.

Echocardiography was performed at 450 m and over 3 days at 3,450 m. Systolic pulmonary artery pressure was estimated from the pressure gradient of tricuspid regurgitation.

The increase in pulmonary artery pressure in children was greater than that in adults at day 1 of high altitude (15.5±9.1 versus 7.9±6.4 mmHg), but returned to adult levels on day 2. The increase in pulmonary artery pressure from low to high altitude of each child correlated with that in the father.

Pre-pubertal children transiently develop greater pulmonary hypertension than their fathers when exposed to high altitude. The individual response of pulmonary pressure to high altitude seems to be at least partly hereditary.