Case Report: Muscle Wasting during Severe Sustained Hypoxia in Two Professional Mountaineers

Purpose: Chronic exposure to hypoxia can induce muscle wasting in unaccustomed individuals. Detailed assessment of the effects of hypoxia on muscle tissue adaptation in elite mountaineers has not been performed. This study aims to assess muscle volume after exposure to normobaric hypoxia.

Methods: Two professional mountaineers (A and B) participated in a 35-d intervention of graded normobaric hypoxia with the aim of 14 d exposure to 8% oxygen corresponding to 7112-m altitude. Volume of the shank, thigh, and hip muscles was assessed by magnetic resonance imaging pre- and postintervention. Dietary intake and physical activity were monitored throughout the study from food images and accelerometry analysis, together with blood analysis and anthropometric measurements.

Results: Hypoxia reduced total leg muscle volume by 3.3% ± 6.0% in A and by 9.4% ± 7.3% in B. A lost 288 g and B 642 g of muscle mass, whereas dietary intake only declined by ~23% in the last intervention week. Arterial oxygen saturation declined from 95% and 86% to 77% and 72% in A and B, respectively. In hypoxia, participants could not maintain their physical activity levels. Notably, muscle loss varied substantially across muscle groups amounting to 5.4% ± 3.0%, 8.3% ± 5.2%, and 4.1% ± 8.6% for hip, thigh, and shank muscles, respectively.

Conclusions: Our results indicate that hypoxia and resultant reductions in physical activity and caloric intake lead to substantial loss of muscle mass that was accentuated in proximal muscle as opposed to distal muscles. Surprisingly, thigh muscle wasting during this intervention is comparable with that observed during strict 56-d bed rest.