It took ten years for me to convince high altitude experts that children living in the mountains get high altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE) without leaving home. My observations were published in 2017 in the Journal of High Altitude Medicine and Biology,
High-Altitude Pulmonary Edema
in Mountain Community Residents
This week Dr. Jose A Castro-Rodriguez MD PhD ATSF discussed HAPE in children at the 8th World Hypoxia conference in La Paz including the now renamed high altitude resident pulmonary edema (HARPE) in his presentation.
Dr. Castro-Rodriguez emphasized the importance of recognizing the three forms of HAPE, including reentry HAPE when children return to the mountains from vacation, since these can be life threatening.
My work has been cited in articles by pulmonologists Deborah Liptzin and Dunbar Ivy from Children’s Hospital of Colorado and geneticist Christine Eichstaedt and her team at the University of Heidelberg.
At Ebert Family Clinic we give every patient/family a free pulse oximeter. The ability to measure the oxygen saturation of anyone with cough, congestion, or fatigue can facilitate early treatment with oxygen and prevent visits to the emergency room, hospital and intensive care unit.
I recently received first prize for a poster presentation on HARPE at the fall Colorado Medical Society meeting, and second prize for a poster on Trauma and HAPE.
For more information about HAPE, HARPE and Trauma-related HAPE, see previous blog entries.
References
Ebert-Santos C. High-Altitude Pulmonary Edema in Mountain Community Residents. High Alt Med Biol. 2017 Sep;18(3):278-284. doi: 10.1089/ham.2016.0100. Epub 2017 Aug 28. PMID: 28846035.
Giesenhagen AM, Ivy DD, Brinton JT, Meier MR, Weinman JP, Liptzin DR. High Altitude Pulmonary Edema in Children: A Single Referral Center Evaluation. J Pediatr. 2019 Jul;210:106-111. doi: 10.1016/j.jpeds.2019.02.028. Epub 2019 Apr 17. PMID: 31005280; PMCID: PMC6592742.
Liptzin DR, Abman SH, Giesenhagen A, Ivy DD. An Approach to Children with Pulmonary Edema at High Altitude. High Alt Med Biol. 2018 Mar;19(1):91-98. doi: 10.1089/ham.2017.0096. Epub 2018 Feb 22. PMID: 29470103; PMCID: PMC5905943.
Eichstaedt CA, Mairbäurl H, Song J, Benjamin N, Fischer C, Dehnert C, Schommer K, Berger MM, Bärtsch P, Grünig E, Hinderhofer K. Genetic Predisposition to High-Altitude Pulmonary Edema. High Alt Med Biol. 2020 Mar;21(1):28-36. doi: 10.1089/ham.2019.0083. Epub 2020 Jan 23. PMID: 31976756.
