Urgent Advice: High Altitude, Angioplasty

udgoa

Wanted to know: if a person has undergone angiplasty are altitudes like rohtang pass, chandratal, batal safe?

capt_mahajan

S/He needs to talk to her or his cardiologist.

paanwallah

Just ask the cardiologist if a blood oxygen saturation of ca. 85% would be OK for a while. The norm is 98-99% but from the altitude of 4000m may drop to this value unless you take a week or longer for the ascend.

vistet

This situation can´t be resolved online , a doc needs to literally see the person and talk it over. Even when doctors seem to just talk they take in a lot of information needed , and this starts when the person walks in to the room : short of breath after the stairs ? cold/warm hands ? BMI, guesstimate ? ...and more.

I wouldn´t expect the angioplasty in itself to be an issue , the risk should be higher before : circulation in the heart has improved after the procedure. The question would be how much circulation still is compromised after the angioplasty, something which must have been determined after the angioplasty. There will be lower oxygen content in the blood with higher altitude , it will drop even more when lying down , and the pulse will rise - all of these are risk factors for a heart with less than perfect circulation. On top of that the blood will become thicker. Some cardiac patients take low doses of aspirin to improve circulation , this is another point to be covered with the doc.

Work out primarily the sleeping altitudes - staying overnight at Chandra Tal is a lot bigger issue than the Rothang , and find a good doc.

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Aishah

Absolutely discuss with your doctor. Even normal people have problems with altitudes over 1500 metres. My friend suffered terribly with headaches and breathlessness visiting me up here at around, 2500 metres. Everyone is different and react differently.

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vistet

I think that´s overstating it , since cabin pressure on planes vary between 1800 to 2100 meters.

Acclimatization has only been touched on indirectly here , but it is also important to remember that you have to go high enough to start the process : nothing will happen in Srinagar , Manali or Shimla are better starting points.

Dilliwala

I disagree. For older folks it can be markedly different. Anything over 1600 m and it takes my mother a few days to sleep normally. And at Mussoorie's (Cantonment) altitude of 2200 m, it takes her 5-6 nights.

grikoo

As far as I'm aware, there are no specific health or age related issues with altitude. Some people get sick, some don't. Sometimes people who have previously not gotten sick, will get sick a second or third time. Fairly unpredictable as far as I can tell.

The only thing that does seem to be fairly well established is that if you've had issues in the past, you're more likely to have them in the future.

That's AMS though.

You need to speak with a doctor specifically about the angioplasty issue. Probably will need to verify your normal oxygen levels.

My thoughts on the matter, are that if you have normal oxygen levels now, that you'll be no more likely to have issues than anyone else. But again, it's highly unpredictable.

Certainly you should probably avoid strenuous activity.

udgoa

Thanks everyone for all the info!

Aishah

Yes, Vistet and Dilliwala, people are all affected differently even at that 1500 metre level - my friend is 60 and she lives in Dharamsala. She tells me it takes her several days to acclimatize there whenever she returns from being overseas for a while - headaches, weakness breathlessness are all symptoms. Here at Landour it is even higher and she had terrible headaches and weakness for about 4-5 days. I seem to be luckier without any of these symptoms, only slight breathlessness climbing uphill but I think that's pretty normal! My daughter who leads mountain expeditions, went to the summit of Mt Cho Oyu, without oxygen and no altitude sickness. She has had clients who can only go to around 5000 metres, taking this in stages, but beyond that it is dangerous for them.