Increased polycythemia is a compensatory mechanism to supply oxygen to the tissues. This increases the oxygen content, even though there is cyanosis, pulmonary hypertension, low saturation and increased blood viscosity. On the contrary, low hematocrit is more frequent in women and anemia is rare. In CMS or Monge's disease, the terms increased polycythemia, excessive erythrocytosis, primary or secondary are creating confusion. A great percentage of chronic respiratory disease at high altitude will, if not diagnosed and treated, produce an increase of the number of red blood cells.
Men have a higher hematocrit than women.
Pictures, tests, graphs and statistics are displayed in the poster. In conclusion, increased polycythemia in CMS, affect more men than women and the severity is in relation to age, magnitude of the pulmonary lesions and particularly to altitude, in such a way that a moderate increased polycythemia will be more severe or grave at higher altitude, exponentially as barometric pressure decreases. The oscillation of the minimal saturation, following BH, lasting even 116 seconds in one patient with CMS, is noteworthy.