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Disgraceful behaviour 21-Feb-2009 At 1:12:20 PM Ni

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On 18/02/2009 evanbb wrote:
>..abuse might help the adrenaline response ...

Blood levels of adrenaline and noradrenaline are already way high in HAPE and are thought to contribute in a major way to the lung damage that allows fluid to leak into the air spaces of the lung. A poke with the pointy end of an ice axe won't change these levels much and certainly not for the better.

On 19/02/2009 jackw wrote:
> Acute Pulmonary Oedema, or its climbing equivelant HAPE

Actually HAPE is quite different from the common variety of (cardiogenic) APO. Many of the commonly used drugs for refractory HAPE, such as dexamethasone, nifedipine, acetazolamide or tadalafil are either useless, harmful or need dosage modified for use in APO. Conversely some APO treatments are harmful in HAPE.

For more info I recommend John West's High Life - A History of High Altitude Physiology and Medicine. It also has some great stories about what climbers have volunteered for in the name of scientific research. Fancy, on your descent from Denali, having a scope passed into your lungs so that the HAPE fluid can be sampled without contamination by saliva? How about having a balloon tipped catheter with thermistor going through the heart and into the pulmonary artery so that measurements can be taken while you exercise to the point of exhaustion on a stationary bicycle in a hypoxic atmosphere?
Climbing at altitude is punishing enough on its own.
Ni