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.

Post decompression records in echocardiography are considered to detect micro bubbles and to survey unexplained decompression sickness which is commonly examined by standardized methods such as dive computers and tables. In this study, existent bubbles are detected on transthoracic echicardiografic frames recorded after recreational diving. Bubble detection is performed by Artificial Neural Networks which are trained using bubbles with different morphologies. We showed that bubbles would be detected on four cardiac chambers without image segmentation.

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.

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.

The ‘normobaric oxygen paradox’: a simple way to induce endogenous erythropoietin production and concomitantly raise hemoglobin levels in anemic patients.