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The standard drug treatment of dexamethasone does not alter the hypoxia or the consequent vasoconstriction, but stimulates fluid reabsorption in the lungs to reverse the edema. Additionally, several studies on native populations remaining at high altitudes have demonstrated to varying degrees the blunting of the HPV response.
Hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction (HPV) occurs diffusely, leading to arterial vasoconstriction in all areas of the lung. This is evidenced by the appearance of "diffuse," "fluffy," and "patchy" infiltrates described on imaging studies of climbers with known HAPE.
By contrast, in the lungs, the response to hypoxia is vasoconstriction. This is known as hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction, or "HPV", and has the effect of redirecting blood away from poorly ventilated regions, which helps match perfusion to ventilation, giving a more even oxygenation of blood from different parts of the lungs. [81]
A study by the Denali Medical Research Project concluded: "In established cases of acute mountain sickness, treatment with acetazolamide relieves symptoms, improves arterial oxygenation, and prevents further impairment of pulmonary gas exchange." [38] The folk remedy for altitude sickness in Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia is a tea made from the coca ...
Two causes are vascular changes as a result of tissue damage (e.g. disease, hypoxic injury), and chronic hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction. If left untreated, then death may result. The heart and lungs are intricately related; whenever the heart is affected by a disease, the lungs risk following and vice versa. [citation needed]
Many people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease have a low partial pressure of oxygen in the blood and high partial pressure of carbon dioxide.Treatment with supplemental oxygen may improve their well-being; alternatively, in some this can lead to the adverse effect of elevating the carbon dioxide content in the blood (hypercapnia) to levels that may become toxic.
Low oxygen levels lead to hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction, the tightening of small blood vessels in the lung to create an optimal distribution of blood through the lung. Persistently low oxygen levels causing chronic vasoconstriction leads to increased pressure on the pulmonary artery ( pulmonary hypertension ), which in turn puts strain on ...
Generalized hypoxia is a medical condition in which the tissues of the body are deprived of the necessary levels of oxygen due to an insufficient supply of oxygen, which may be due to the composition or pressure of the breathing gas, decreased lung ventilation, or respiratory disease, any of which may cause a lower than normal oxygen content in the arterial blood, and consequently a reduced ...