Synonym: high-altitude heart disease, chronic mount sickness of the vascular type
Criteria for diagnosis:
(1) residence at an altitude > 2,500 meters.
(2) at the altitude of residence the mean pulmonary artery pressure is > 30 mm Hg OR the systolic pulmonary artery pressure is > 50 mm Hg.
(3) right ventricular hypertrophy.
(4) heart failure.
(5) moderate hypoxemia
(6) absence of excessive erythrocytosis (male with hemoglobin < 21 g/dL, female with hemoglobin < 19 g/dL)
(7) exclusion of other causes of pulmonary hypertension
where:
• For infants up to 6 months of age mean pulmonary artery pressure > 50 mm Hg and systolic pulmonary artery pressure > 65 mm Hg.
• For children up to 5 years of age the mean and systolic pulmonary artery pressures are intermediate.
Clinical and radiologic findings:
(1) cough
(2) dyspnea
(3) cyanosis
(4) sleep disturbances
(5) irritability
(6) cardiomegaly with enlargement of right atrium and ventricle
(7) prominent peripheral pulmonary arteries
(8) signs of right heart failure
