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Team to carry out medical research on Everest
A medical research team will climb Mt. Everest, the world's tallest peak, to look death in the face – and take its pulse during spring 2007.
According to everestnews.com, the medical research team will make the first ever measurements of blood oxygen in the ‘death zone’, at altitudes above 8,000 metres where the human body has struggled - and frequently failed - to survive.
The Centre for Aviation, Space and Extreme Environment Medicine (CASE) team, based at University College London (UCL), will lead the expedition to Mt. Everest. At the summit, clinicians will measure the amount of oxygen in their own blood along with running tests to see how well their brains, lungs and metabolisms are working at extreme altitude. The experiments alone entail a risk of thrombosis and other complications; combined with the harsh mountain conditions, only the toughest are likely to finish the job, states the online news service.
The team will have researchers-cum-doctors and more than 200 volunteers, according to www.xtreme-everest.co.uk.
The team, all of whom work with anesthesia, intensive care or remote medicine, hope to draw parallels between the human body pushed to its limits during critical illness and changes that occur in extreme environments. Low levels of oxygen in the blood of high altitude climbers is similar to levels in critically ill patients on breathing machines with severe heart and lung conditions, “blue babies” and cystic fibrosis sufferers.
The summiteers will also test a prototype closed-circuit breathing system. This type of circuit has only once previously - and unsuccessfully - been used by climbers attempting the summit. The equipment, adapted from firefighters’ apparatus, will be redesigned to cope with icy conditions.
The Xtreme Everest expedition will consist of research teams exploring the following science themes: Hypoxia (oxygen deficiency); Brain; Breathing Systems and Genetics. High altitude laboratories set up en route, including one on Everest's South Col (8,000m), will enable collaborating scientists to investigate many aspects of extreme altitude physiology including illnesses such as fluid on the brain and lungs and acute mountain sickness. The genetics project will track and compare the genetic profile of high altitude natives, lowlanders and summiteers to identify genes that aid survival in extreme altitudes.
A separate initiative called Project Everest will recruit over 1000 volunteers to take part in cardiovascular fitness research at UCL in the run up to the expedition. Participants will undergo Cardiopulmonary Exercise Testing (CPEX) which will measure their heart rate and breathing to determine their maximum exercise potential and endurance, which can then be used to tailor fitness training programmes.
The core climbing group of seven, two of whom have yet to be recruited, include cardiovascular geneticist Dr Hugh Montgomery, GP Dr Sundeep Dhillon, high altitude clinician Dr Mike Grocott, clinician Dr Roger McMorrow and diving expert Dr Denny Levett. Space expert Dr Kevin Fong along with Dr Levett will act as medics for the expedition teams. Dr Dhillon is the only participant who has experience of climbing above 8,000m. Along with the usual climbing dangers of rock falls and avalanches, the group will be risking medical complications such as high altitude illness, frostbite, hypothermia and brain damage.
CASE director and expedition leader Dr Mike Grocott says: “If you reached the top of Everest without acclimatizing, you would be unconscious within two minutes, and death would follow rapidly. Acclimatization has allowed human beings to survive and thrive in the most extreme conditions, but it remains a poorly understood process. Our goal is to study life at the very limit.”