Anatomical and hemodynamic evaluations of the heart and pulmonary arterial pressure in healthy children residing at high altitude in China.

Objectives: Altitude-hypoxia induces pulmonary arterial hypertension and altered cardiac morphology and function, which is little known in healthy children at high altitude. We compared the cardiopulmonary measurements between the healthy children at 16 m and those at 3700 m in China and between the Hans and the Tibetans at 3700 m.

Methods: Echocardiography was assessed in 477 children (15 day-14 years) including 220 at 16 m and 257 at 3700 m.

Changes of cardiac structure and function in pediatric patients with high altitude pulmonary hypertension in Tibet.

This study was performed to evaluate the structural and functional cardiac changes in pediatric high altitude pulmonary hypertension (HAPH) using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and Doppler echocardiography (Echo). Ten patients with infantile HAPH (aged 12 to 24 months) and eight healthy age-matched children (control group) underwent MRI and Echo studies. All participants were born and living in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (3600 to 4600 m).

[Comparitive [Comparative] study of the indexes of pulmonary arterial pressure of healthy children at different altitudes by Doppler echocardiography].

Objective: Reduced oxygen availability at a high altitude is associated with increased pulmonary arterial pressure (PAP). With the altitude goes up the change of PAP in healthy children is still not clear. The difference of PAP in native Tibetan and Han children at a high altitude are also not clear.