OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether prehydration 90 min before a dive could decrease bubble formation, and to evaluate the consequent adjustments in plasma volume (PV), water balance and plasma surface tension (ST).

INTRODUCTION: The preconditioning of divers to reduce post-dive decompression sickness (DCS) has gained increased interest in diving medical research over the last few years. The beneficial effects of physical exercise, oxygen breathing, hyperbaric exposure, heat exposure, hyperhydration, or nitroglycerin administration before the dive are only a few examples of ongoing research. In this work, we investigated the effects of pre-dive whole-body vibration on post-dive bubble formation.

INTRODUCTION: Many divers report less fatigue following dives breathing enriched air nitrox (EANx) compared with breathing air. A reduction of post-dive fatigue with EANx would suggest a pathological origin, possibly the presence of asymptomatic nitrogen bubbles in the body after a dive.

INTRODUCTION: The term decompression illness (DCI) describes maladies resulting from inadequate decompression, but there is little consensus concerning clinically useful DCI subclasses. Our aim was to explore an objective DCI classification using multivariate statistics to assess naturally associated clusters of DCI manifestations. We also evaluated their mapping onto other DCI classifications and investigated the association with therapeutic outcome.

There is a limited understanding of the normal function of the pterygoïdeus proprius muscle and the role that this muscle may have in temporomandibular disorders. Despite a well-described anatomical in-vitro approach to this muscle, there are still difficulties in investigating the fossa pterygopalatina. This study reveals an alternative in-vivo approach by magnetic resonance imaging to visualise the muscle in the fossa pterygopalatina on 78 head halves, describe the connections with the musculus temporalis and pterygoïdeus lateralis as well as report the incidence without dealing with the known inconveniences of the dissection approach. The results show an incidence of 12.82% for the musculus pterygoïdeus proprius equally divided between both genders. Two different types of bridging between the musculus temporalis and musculus pterygoïdeus lateralis were also found: (i) 'O' shape (6.41%) and (ii) 'Y' shape (6.41%). This study suggests the use of magnetic resonance imaging to investigate the different connections between vascular and muscular structures in the fossa pterygopalatina. Further research with this approach to link the appearance of the muscle with neurovascular entrapment syndromes is warranted.