ABSTRACT
The adverse effects of hypoxia on the nervous system are experienced at relatively low altitudes, and the severity increases from that experienced by aircrew in the mild hypoxic environment of the cabins of commercial transport aircraft to that experienced by mountaineers and those who live in the mountains. Acclimatization to hypobaric hypoxia is accompanied by increases in systemic arterial pressure and sympathoadrenal activity. Schematic of hypoxia sensing mechanisms in the peripheral chemoreceptor Type 1 cell of the carotid body. The hypoxia-inducible factors are transcription factors that are a key part of the genomic response to sustained hypoxia. Diagram illustrating key sites in the ventilatory control system involved in the response to hypoxia. The increase in ventilation is a time-dependent process improving over several days in visitors to high altitude. Brain blood flow increases in response to the fall in the partial pressure of oxygen of the environment or arterial oxygen tensions.
