Hematology, blood volume, and oxygen transport of dogs exposed to high altitude.

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Abstract
Purebred beagle dogs of uniform size, age, and genetic background were utilized to study the hematologic response at sea level and during 16 weeks exposure to 5300 and 14,100 ft. altitude. Hemato-crit, hemoglobin, and erythrocyte counts rose sharply at 14,100 ft. and plateaued before or by 30 days of exposure. Hematocrit an the end of the exposure period was 50% at 5300 ft. and 59% at 14,100 ft. Reticu-locyte counts peaked to 1.0% at about day 10 at 5300 ft. and 3.5% at 14,100 ft. and returned to sea-level values (0.5%) by day 30 at both altitudes. The myeloid:erythroid ratio of bone marrow cells fell to 0.4 from a control of 0.9 within 5-10 days of exposure. A marked reduction in plasma volume resulted in a lowered total blood volume which remained throughout the exposure period despite an increasing cell volume. Acclimatization was demonstrated by a significant increase in O2 tension and saturation by the end of 16 weeks. Dogs exhibit a hemopoietic response to high altitude qualitatively similar to man and lie between man and rat in the quantitative degree of this response.