Publications

Selected scientific publications on diving medicine and physiology.

2017 Feb 23
Environment-induced pulmonary oedema in healthy individuals
Marabotti C., Cialoni D., Pingitore A.

Infrequently, healthy individuals can develop acute pulmonary oedema when exposed to an extreme or unusual environment (ie, deep dives or high altitudes), especially during physical exertion. High-altitude pulmonary oedema (HAPO) has been reported in 0·5–7·0% of individuals who climb to altitudes higher than 4000 m (according to ascent speed), whereas swimming-induced pulmonary oedema (SIPO) has been reported in a different proportion of individuals engaged in aquatic activities.

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2021 Jul 26
Heart Rate Variability during a standard dive: a role for inspired oxygen pressure?
Pierre Lafère, Kate Lambrechts, Peter Germonpre, Ambre Balestra, Faye Lisa Germonpré, Alessandro Marroni, Danilo Cialoni, Gerardo Bosco, Costantino Balestra

Introduction: Heart rate variability (HRV) during underwater diving has been infrequently investigated because of environment limitations and technical challenges. This study aims to analyze HRV changes while diving at variable hyperoxia when using open circuit (OC) air diving apparatus or at constant hyperoxia using a closed-circuit rebreather (CCR).

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2021 Jul 28
High-Throughput Griess Assay of Nitrite and Nitrate in Plasma and Red Blood Cells for Human Physiology Studies under Extreme Conditions
Brizzolari, A.; Dei Cas, M.; Cialoni, D.; Marroni, A.; Morano, C.; Samaja, M.; Paroni, R.; Rubino, F.M.

The metabolism of nitric oxide plays an increasingly interesting role in the physiological response of the human body to extreme environmental conditions, such as underwater, in an extremely cold climate, and at low oxygen concentrations.

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2021 Aug 10
Assessment of Alertness and Cognitive Performance of Closed Circuit Rebreather Divers With the Critical Flicker Fusion Frequency Test in Arctic Diving Conditions
Piispanen Wilhelme W., Lundell Richard V., Tuominen Laura J., Räisänen-Sokolowski Anne K.

SCUBA diving exposes divers to decompression sickness (DCS). There has been considerable debate whether divers with a Patent Foramen Ovale of the heart have a higher risk of DCS because of the possible right-to-left shunt of venous decompression bubbles into the arterial circulation.

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Risk of decompression illness among 230 divers in relation to the presence and size of patent foramen ovale
Germonpre P, Balestra C.

BACKGROUND: The risk of developing decompression illness (DCI) in divers with a patent foramen ovale (PFO) has not been directly determined so far; neither has it been assessed in relation to the PFO's size. METHODS :In 230 scuba divers (age 39+/-8 years), contrast trans-oesophageal echocardiography (TEE) was performed for the detection and size grading (0-3) of PFO. Prior to TEE, the study individuals answered a detailed questionnaire about their health status and about their diving habits and accidents. For inclusion into the study, > or =200 dives and strict adherence to decompression tables were required. RESULTS: Sixty-three divers (27%) had a PFO. Overall, the absolute risk of suffering a DCI event was 2.5 per 10(4) dives. There were 18 divers (29%) with, and 10 divers (6%) without, PFO who had experienced > or =1 major DCI events P=0.016. In the group with PFO, the incidence per 10(4) dives of a major DCI, a DCI lasting longer than 24 h and of being treated in a decompression chamber amounted to 5.1 (median 0, interquartile range [IQR] 0-10.0), 1.9 (median 0, IQR 0-4.0) and 3.6 (median 0, IQR 0-9.8), respectively and was 4.8-12.9-fold higher than in the group without PFO (P<0.001). The risk of suffering a major DCI, of a DCI lasting longer than 24 h and of being treated by recompression increased with rising PFO size. CONCLUSION: The presence of a PFO is related to a low absolute risk of suffering five major DCI events per 10(4) dives, the odds of which is five times as high as in divers without PFO. The risk of suffering a major DCI parallels PFO size.

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