Symposium review: high altitude travel with pulmonary vascular disease

Abstract

Pulmonary arterial hypertension and chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension are the main precapillary forms of pulmonary hypertension (PH) summarized as pulmonary vascular diseases (PVD). PVDs are characterized by exertional dyspnoea and oxygen desaturation, and reduced quality of life and survival. Medical therapies improve life expectancy and physical performance of PVD patients, of whom many wish to participate in professional work and recreational activities including traveling to high altitude. The exposure to the hypobaric hypoxic environment of mountain regions incurs the risk of high altitude adverse events (AE_HA) due to severe hypoxaemia exacerbating symptoms and further increase in pulmonary artery pressure, which may lead to right heart decompensation. Recent prospective and randomized trials show that altitude-induced hypoxaemia, pulmonary haemodynamic changes and impairment of exercise performance in PVD patients are in the range found in healthy people. The vast majority of optimally treated stable PVD patients who do not require long-term oxygen therapy at low altitude can tolerate short-term exposure to moderate altitudes up to 2500 m. PVD patients that reveal persistent severe resting hypoxaemia ( $S_{p{O}_2}$ <80% for >30 min) at 2500 m respond well to supplemental oxygen therapy. Although there are no accurate predictors for AE_HA, PVD patients with unfavourable risk profiles at low altitude, such as higher WHO functional class, lower exercise capacity with more pronounced exercise-induced desaturation and more severely impaired haemodynamics, are at increased risk of AE_HA. Therefore, doctors with experience in PVD and high-altitude medicine should counsel PVD patients before any high-altitude sojourn. This review aims to summarize recent literature and clinical recommendations about PVD patients travelling to high altitude.

Keywords: altitude‐related adverse events; chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension altitude; high altitude travel; hypoxia; pulmonary arterial hypertension; pulmonary hypertension.