High altitude diseases are a group of idiopathic diseases induced by high altitude hypobaric hypoxia

seriously threatening the health of people living in the plateau

and are key issues in the researches on high altitude medicine. Though significant progress has been made in the pathogenesis and preventive measures of the diseases

many problems still remain unclear. In recent year

a lot of researches suggest that inflammation plays an important role in the pathogenesis of the diseases. Particularly

unbalance of vasoconstriction/vasodilation

increased vascular permeability and other inflammatory vascular responses are the key mechanism of acute high altitude diseases

and excessive pulmonary vascular remodeling

myocardial remodeling

blood remodeling and other excessive inflammatory responses induce chronic high altitude diseases such as high altitude pulmonary artery hypertension

high altitude heart disease and high altitude polycythemia.