[Clinico-functional characteristics of pulmonary heart disease developing at high altitude as a result of chronic bronchitis].

It was shown that the high-altitude conditions of the Pamirs and Tien Shan (2800-3600 m above the sea-level) modified the clinicofunctional signs and a course of the cor pulmonale (CP) in chronic bronchitis. CP was detected in the examined patients with chronic bronchitis. As compared to the conditions of foothills (760 m) CP in mountain-dwellers was more noticeable in terms of the signs of pulmonary arterial hypertension, right ventricular hypertrophy developed in them 5 years earlier. The first obvious signs of cardiac decompensation developed in the presence of moderate (noticeable at the foothills) right ventricular hypertrophy and were often (51.5% of the patients against 21.6% under the foothills conditions) accompanied by disturbance of cardiac rhythm and conduction.