A TEAM of US scientists departed yesterday to conduct research on Mount Everest climbers in an effort to further knowledge of the cardiovascular system at extreme altitudes and help improve treatment for heart and lung patients.

Bruce Johnson, a consultant on cardiovascular diseases at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota and leader of the group, said the study subjects will be a US team that plans to replicate the first 1963 ascent by a US team.

That expedition put five US climbers on the summit, two climbing the difficult and then-untested West Ridge route and the rest along the normal Southeast Ridge route which was used by New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay in their pioneering 1953 ascent.

Nearly 3,700 people have climbed Mount Everest, also known as Qomolangma, the world's highest peak at 8,850 meters, since then.

"We are interested in lung physiology in high altitude, which is similar to the lung physiology in heart failure patients," Johnson said

Johnson said each of the nine climbers, who are already at the mountain acclimatizing, will be fitted with equipment including a special wrist watch and an arm band that will allow their body to be monitored at a base camp laboratory.

The watch will measure the blood oxygen level and the specially designed arm band will show energy used and how many calories they burn.

Climbers will also be wearing the "Mayo platform," an instrument devised by the clinic that fits in a tiny pocket on the climber's clothing and will measure their cardiovascular activity, Johnson said.

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