Human oxygen metabolism at high altitudes

The rapid tourism development resulted in higher incidence of the diseases related to oxygen metabolism pathologies at high altitudes. On the other hand, the lack of ability of close monitoring of changes during oxygen breathing in these conditions still makes it a subject of high interest for clinical studies. It seems that the main problem in oxygen metabolism at high altitudes is the disorder of pulmonary oxygen diffusion. In this paper the authors present the current knowledge, based on available literature, about the high-altitude oxygen metabolism.