ArticleBMJ open sport & exercise medicine2018
Acetazolamide reduces exercise capacity following a 5-day ascent to 4559 m in a randomised study.
Article in BMJ open sport & exercise medicine, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 17 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effect of Acetazolamide on Pulmonary Hemodynamics and Right Heart Function in Healthy Adults Going to Altitude: A Randomized Controlled Trial.Journal of the American Heart Association · 2025Trial
- Ketone monoester attenuates oxygen desaturation during weighted ruck exercise under acute hypoxic exposure but does not impact cognitive performance.Experimental physiology · 2024Trial
- Prediction of acute mountain sickness from overnight pulse oximetry during ascent to Everest Base Camp: a field-based machine learning study.Frontiers in physiology · 2026Article
- Acute effect of acetazolamide on exercise haemodynamics in patients with pulmonary arterial and chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension: a randomised controlled trial.ERJ open research · 2025Article
- Elucidating the combined effect of intermittent hypoxia training and acetazolamide on hypoxia induced hematological and physiological changes.Current research in physiology · 2022Article
- Hypoxia is not the primary mechanism contributing to exercise-induced proteinuria.BMJ open sport & exercise medicine · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo assess whether acetazolamide (Az), used prophylactically for acute mountain sickness (AMS), alters exercise capacity at high altitude.
methodsAz (500 mg daily) or placebo was administered to 20 healthy adults (aged 36±20 years, range 21-77), who were paired for age, sex, AMS susceptibility and weight, in a double-blind, randomised manner. Participants ascended over 5 days to 4559 m, then exercised to exhaustion on a bicycle ergometer, while recording breath-by-breath gas measurements. Comparisons between groups and matched pairs were done via Mann-Whitney U and Pearson's χ
resultsComparing paired individuals at altitude, those on Az had greater reductions in maximum power output (P
conclusionMaximum exercise performance at altitude was reduced more in subjects taking Az compared with placebo, particularly in older individuals. The age-related effect may reflect higher tissue concentrations of Az due to reduced renal excretion. Future studies should explore the effectiveness of smaller Az doses (eg, 250 mg daily or less) in older individuals to optimise the altitude-Az-exercise relationships.
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Registered trials
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