Dexamethasone and acute mountain sickness

To the Editor: The paper by Levine et al. (Dec. 21 issue)¹ demonstrating the efficacy of dexamethasone for the treatment of experimentally induced acute mountain sickness failed to note that we documented the value of dexamethasone for acute mountain sickness three years ago, at the annual meeting of the American Thoracic Society,² and later elsewhere.³ Our study showed that mild-to-moderate mountain sickness resulting from alpine skiing could be prevented by short-term prophylactic administration of dexamethasone in the same doses used by Levine et al. In our study, involving more than 100 patients, no evidence of serious adverse events was noted.