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Peter Hackett, MD; Drummond Rennie, MD

JAMA. 2002;287:2275-2278.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

High-altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE) is a potentially fatal condition that typically starts after ascent in people ascending too quickly. When first described, HAPE was assumed to be due to acute left ventricular failure, but it has been known for 40 years that HAPE is associated with an excessive hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction and pulmonary hypertension. This by itself cannot be the sole cause, however, because not all individuals who develop pulmonary hypertension develop HAPE at altitude.

In 1986, THE JOURNAL published an important advance in the understanding of HAPE.¹ Schoene et al showed that climbers who had HAPE and underwent bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) at a camp set up at 4400 m on Denali (Mount McKinley, 6194 m) had lavage fluid with a high concentration of protein compared with lavage fluid from 3 healthy investigators. In addition, the presence of complement activation and lipoxygenase metabolites indicated . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Author Affiliations: Division of Emergency Medicine, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver (Dr Hackett); Institute for Health Policy Studies, University of California, San Francisco; Dr Rennie is Deputy Editor, JAMA.

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