Everest lab work commences

Researchers are set to climb to the biggest laboratory in the world to study the parallels between high altitude physiology and heart failure physiology.

The team will make the ascent on Friday, and will be the first team to have ever undertaken such research in the unique climate. Scientists from the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota will track nine climbers attempting to tackle the world's biggest mountain in an attempt to learn more about the physiology of humans at high altitudes in order to help patients with heart conditions and other ailments.

Dr Bruce Johnson, who is heading the team, told the Associated Press before leaving Nepal's capital, Katmandu, for the mountain: "We are interested in some of the parallels between high altitude physiology and heart failure physiology.

"What we are doing here will help us with our work that we have been doing in the (Mayo Clinic) laboratory."

Lab equipment will be taken to a research facility located at 5,300 metres (17,380 feet). The team says Everest's extreme altitude puts climbers under the same conditions experienced by patients suffering from heart disease.

Posted by Ben Evans