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Re: Question Of Altitude ...From: ainsron@msn.comSun Jul 15 17:42:19 2001
Sorry to be late at responding to this, just returned from vacation. Occupational and environmental reproductive Hazards by Paul has a good section on hypobaric environments. They refer to the Colorado study by Unger, mentioned by Dan, which found that infants born above 10,000 feet weighed on average 346 gm less than babies born at sea level. Rate of LBW was 6.8% at sea level and 13% above 10,000 feet. There was no increase in perinatal morbidity or mortality. These findings were confirmed in a high altitude study on a population in the Peruvian Andes. Another article found that infants born at 15,000 feet weighed 15% less than those delivered at sea level, but the placentas weighed 12% more! (response to hypobaric atmosphere?) Paul suggests that pregnant women avoid altitudes over 15,000 feet because no data exists for those heights. Additionally, most studies have been on chronic exposure, not acute exposure to hypobaric conditions, but acute exposure to altitude during pregnancy appears to be benign. > >Dear ob-gyn-l 'ers: > >I have a nephew whose wife is in her third trimester. They live in the >Denver area at about 5,500 feet altitude. The pregnancy has gone well and >they state that fetal kicks are normal. I do not know what other tests have >been done, other than possibly a genetic amniocentesis in the second >trimester, but all appears to be normal. > >I received a call from them this morning. They are thinking of going to a >town that is about 7,000 - 8,000 feet for the afternoon and were asking >whether or not it is safe. There are a number or questions. Is the >decreased oxygen tension a problem for the fetus? Is there an increased >risk of pulmonary edema? Are there other problems. > >Clearly, I will be doing a medline search to see what I can find. (In fact, >I would be happy to share my results with anybody who is interested>) The >ACOG web site seems to be down for the day, so I cannot check them. My >texts are all in the office, although I will check out Gabbe on MD Consult >as soon as I send this note. > >The problem: they are going to be leaving in an hour or two, giving me not >very much time to search for information. Living at 500, rather than 5,000 >feet, this question does not come up very frequently in Illinois. > >Is there anybody out there, especially someone from Colorado or from a high >altitude area, that has information readily at hand on this topic. Even if >it is just a citation, I will be happy to go to the library to look it up. > >Thanks in advance for any infomation. > >-- >Dean Huffman >
-- Ronald E. Ainsworth, MD
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