Pediatric cardiologists at LMU are researching the response of the heart and blood vessels at altitude in Lenggries. (Symbolic image) © Patrick Seeger/dpa/Symbolbild
How do adolescents' hearts and blood vessels react to height? Pediatric cardiologists are conducting research on this topic in Lenggries. Volunteers are still being sought.
Lenggries – Pediatric cardiologists at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich want to investigate in a study how the heart and blood vessels of healthy children and adolescents react to height. To this end, they are working together with the Hermann Buhl Institute of the Lenggries Specialist Clinic and are looking for test subjects.
How do the heart and blood vessels react to altitude?
During long-haul flights or a stay in the mountains, you breathe air with a lower oxygen content than at sea level. "Healthy people tolerate this well and without symptoms. Only at high altitudes do they develop the so-called altitude sickness," according to a press release. For some groups of patients with certain heart or lung diseases, however, this is different, so that they should even be advised not to stay in the high mountains.
How the heart and blood vessels react to a lower oxygen content has hardly been studied, even in healthy children. For the study, it is now to be simulated how the oxygen content is experienced at 3500 meters. This can be done in a special room at the Lenggries Specialist Clinic, which can also be used for altitude training. The pediatricians want to investigate how the heart and blood vessels react. "After completing the studies on healthy children and adolescents, we hope to examine children with heart or lung disease before they go on vacation, for example, to make sure that they can tolerate the trip."
Looking for healthy volunteers aged 8 to 28 years
For the investigations, healthy volunteers between the ages of 8 and 28 are now being sought – but above all children and adolescents. Two study visits to Lenggries with a length of one to one and a half hours are necessary. For this, there is an expense allowance in the form of a book voucher in the amount of 50 euros. The investigations are first carried out in normal ambient air and, on the second visit, at a simulated altitude. The blood vessels, the heart (echocardiography) and the load capacity on a bicycle ergometer are examined. If you are interested, please contact us by e-mail to hypoxiestudie@web.de or by SMS on 01 52/01 80 07 33.
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