Trekkers' Awareness of Acute Mountain Sickness and Acetazolamide

摘要

Despite the wealth of information about acute mountainnsickness (AMS) and the value of acetazolamide for itsnprevention and treatment, we have encountered manyntrekkers to high altitude who seem confused about thenuse of acetazolamide in AMS. There appears to be anmisconception that acetazolamide masks early AMSnsymptoms; this is mentioned in some guidebooks.1 Wenhave not found any references to the extent of acetazolamidenusage by trekkers for AMS prevention.nTo test the level of trekkers’ understanding of AMSnand the use of acetazolamide, we performed a crosssectionalnstudy. Formatted interviews were conducted innEnglish with 150 trekkers at Mislung, the exit point fromnNamche Bazar (3440 m altitude) in the Solukhumbun(Everest) region of Nepal on 3 consecutive days in Octobern2001. Trekkers were assessed for symptoms ofnAMS using the Lake Louise Questionnaire scoring system;na score of 3 or more, including headache plus atnleast one other symptom, was the diagnostic criterion fornAMS.2