6,7 The questionnaires were deposited at the reception desk of a mountain hut (3,145 m) during a summer season. The mountain hut is reachable only by crossing glacier terrain with special equipment (crampons, rope, etc.) and is usually not visited by hikers. The mountaineers have to register at the reception when arriving, and the staff of the hut informed the visitors about the survey and the importance of participation independent of existing CVD and asked them to complete the provided questionnaire. All returned questionnaires find more were collected at the hut until the end of the season. Data were statistically analyzed by SPSS (version 14.0). Comparisons of subgroups were performed by t-tests,

chi-square tests, or Fisher’s exact test as adequate. p Values <0.05 were considered to indicate statistical significance. Values are presented as means ± SD or frequencies (95% CI). A total of 497 questionnaires were completed amounting to about 30% of the 1,538 overnight guests during the summer season according to the records of the hut manager (Arthur Lanthaler, personal communication, November 2009). Twenty-four of them had to be excluded because of obviously incorrect data or no data concerning the CVD. Thus, details of 473 individuals [26% female, 74% male, age 41 ± 14 y (range: 6–76 y), body weight 72 ± 14 kg (range: 27–120 kg), and height 175 ± 10 cm (range: 122–199 cm)] were included into

the analyses. Differing sample sizes are a result of incomplete questionnaires. The persons reported to perform 7 ± 6 hours per week sports activity regularly and 91.4% (88.9–93.9) are physically Etoposide mouse active at least once a week. The prevalence of the recorded CVD among the interviewed high-altitude mountaineers was 0.4% (0.0–1.0) for

prior MI, 0% for CAD without MI, 4.2% (2.4–6.0) for hypertension, 1.7% (0.5–2.9) for arrhythmias, and 1.1% (0.2–2.0) for other CVD. In general, 7.4% (5.0–9.8) of the high-altitude mountaineers suffered from one or more CVD. The frequencies of CVD among different age groups are illustrated in Table 1. The self-reported prevalence of CVD among high-altitude Vildagliptin mountaineers was lower compared to those recently found in hikers and alpine skiers6 but did not relevantly differ from ski mountaineers.7 The differences between high-altitude mountaineers and hikers cannot be explained by different mean ages or age distribution of the participants but are likely related to two factors. (1) Partly steeper and more demanding terrain (eg, snowfields or climbing passages), the higher weight of the equipment (eg, boots and crampons), and the stronger hypoxic exposure lead to higher demands of strength, endurance, and technical skills during high-altitude mountaineering when compared to hiking. Persons with preexisting CVD are often unable to fulfill these requirements and might refrain from such mountain sport activities.