© F.GUION
Chamonix Field Test Altitude Sickness
Dr. Vertical runs tests at Aiguille du Midi
Some 90 volunteers have been recruited by a mountain medicine association to run tests at 3842 metres, in hope to better understand the cause of altitude sickness and determine early signals for this potentially fatal condition.
The study entitled MAM (mal aigue des montagnes) is funded by the Ifremmont, a mountain medicine research association, and fronted by Emmanuel Cauchy - locally known as Doctor Vertical.
Specially designed test equipment monitors the volunteers blood flow to the brain, from the valley floor all the way up to the Aiguille du Midi at 3842 metres where some volunteers spent the night.
"The ultimate aim of our study is prevention: we could run a test on a person before going up and determine whether they will suffer from altitude sickness or not. We can prevent people from leaving for a remote high altitude trip, where they risk never coming back because of an edema" says Emmanuel Cauchy.
Details of this research project as well as other mountain medical studies will be presented in Chamonix on a special Mountain Doctors Day on the 12th of May.
