Justin Stevan Lawley1,
Paul Gerald Mark Mullins2, Sam Oliver1, Jamie Macdonald1
1School
of Sport Health and Exercise Sciences, Bangor University, Bangor, United
Kingdom; 2School of Psychology, Bangor University, Bangor, United
Kingdom
Travel to altitude exposes the traveller to mild - moderate hypoxia. This leads to the development of acute mountain sickness (AMS), symptoms of which suggest pathophysiological changes are occurring in the brain, oedema and potential swelling being two previously identified. We used Diffusion weighted Imaging and T2 calculations to study the development of oedema in AMS, and conclude that the initial oedema is intracellular only, and any swelling of tissue that occurs must do so by means other then vasogenic oedema.