FRIDAY, Feb. 2 (HealthDay News) -- Acetazolamide, a drug used to treat fluid retention after heart failure, may also be useful in treating pulmonary edema that can result after ascending to high altitudes, researchers report in the February issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
Marc J. Poulin, Ph.D., of the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada, and colleagues studied nine participants in a randomized, placebo-controlled, crossover study. Subjects received 250 mg acetazolamide every eight hours for three days. On the fourth day, they were tested for ventilation, cerebral blood flow, and pulmonary vascular resistance (as assessed by the maximum pressure difference across the tricuspid valve) after acute isocapnic (20 minutes) and sustained poikilocapnic (four hours) hypoxia.
The researchers found that under normal oxygen conditions, acetazolamide increased ventilation and reduced pulmonary vascular resistance. The drug reduced the rise in pulmonary vascular resistance by 57 percent after acute isocapnic hypoxia. Acetazolamide reduced the rise in pulmonary vascular resistance by 34 percent and increased ventilation after sustained poikilocapnic hypoxia, the investigators report.
"Acetazolamide has complex effects on ventilation, pulmonary vascular resistance, and cerebral blood flow that converge to optimize brain oxygenation and may be a valuable means to prevent/treat high-altitude pulmonary edema," Poulin and colleagues conclude.
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