Thursday, October 21, 2010

More on acetazolamide

A few weeks ago while on acetazolamide for altitude sickness prophylaxis the whole group noted tingling and paresthesias. What was curious is that the symptoms were most pronounced in the morning. The paresthesias were primarily on the hands and feet with a rare complaint of symptoms on the face.

I suspected that these symptoms are due to hyperventilation induced hypophosphatemia and the high carbohydrate breakfast (oatmeal) caused a bolus of insulin that further lowered the phosphorous. Does anyone know the etiology? Does hyperventilation cause hypophosphatemia if the increase in ventialtion is compensatory for metabolic acidosis?

FYI: the acetazolamide taste alteration makes carbonated beverages inedible.



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