The Impact of Altitude on Exercise Tolerance of Various Patients
A special issue of Medicina (ISSN 1648-9144). This special issue belongs to the section "Sports Medicine and Sports Traumatology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 May 2025) | Viewed by 1302
Special Issue Editors
Interests: exercise physiology; extreme environments; high-altitude medicine
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: cardiopulmonary exercise testing; functional evaluation in health and disease; physical exercise training in chronic disease; effectiveness of different exercise modalities; sports and exercise medicine; exercise physiology; high-altitude medicine
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
More than 500 million humans live at or above the altitude of 1500 m, and many more people transiently sojourn at such altitudes for recreation, athletic training, or work. A considerable proportion, in particular of elderly people, may suffer from chronic diseases, e.g., cardiovascular, respiratory, and/or metabolic disorders. Barometric and related oxygen partial pressure continuously decrease with increasing altitude (hypobaric hypoxia), thereby negatively affecting aerobic exercise capacity and the associated activities of daily living and quality of life. The negative impact of the low-oxygen environment at altitude largely depends on the type and severity of diseases.
While the general effects of hypobaric hypoxia on aerobic exercise capacity in healthy individuals are well known, information on the differential impact of high altitudes on exercise tolerance in patients suffering from various diseases is rather scarce. Thus, this Special Issue is primarily aimed to uncover disease-dependent pathophysiological mechanisms affecting exercise capacity at high altitudes and provide helpful management strategies.
Gas exchange in the lungs, oxygen delivery to exercising muscles, and the use of oxygen in the mitochondria of these muscles are the main determinants of an individual’s aerobic exercise capacity. Any impairment of these mechanisms and/or their control by the autonomous nervous system, e.g., ventilation/perfusion mismatching, heart failure, myo- and/or mitochondriopathies, and disturbed chemo- and/or/baro-reflexes, will negatively impact on exercise tolerance, which is especially pronounced when ambient oxygen availability is reduced, i.e., at high altitude. The impact of different diseases on an individual’s exercise tolerance when acutely or chronically exposed to high altitudes and, even less, the underlying pathophysiological mechanisms, have not yet been sufficiently investigated. However, such knowledge would be of utmost importance to developing appropriate preventive and therapeutic measures.
Research articles and review articles, as well as short communications, are welcome.
Prof. Dr. Martin Burtscher
Dr. Daniel Neunhaeuserer
Prof. Dr. Silvia Ulrich
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Medicina is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- high altitude
- hypoxia
- exercise
- exercise limitation
- chronic diseases
- chronic lung disease
- chronic heart disease
- sleep apnea
- arterial hypertension
- pulmonary hypertension
Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue
- Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
- Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
- Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
- External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
- Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.
Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.
