Scientific papers 1990 - 1999
The documents are classified chronologically from 1990 to 1999.
Click on their descriptions to open and download them.
Authors: Doctors Shield & Lee
This report is part of the documents that have initiated the
implementation of the UK HSE diving bottom time limits
that are in force in British waters. Also, they have been
adopted by IOGP in the recommended diving practices of
the association.
Study of human organ oxygen tolerance, lung flow-
volume and spirometric measurements performed
repeatedly before, during, and after continuous
oxygen exposures at 1.5, 2.0, and 2.5 ATA for
average durations of 17.7, 9.0, and 5.7 hours,
respectively.
This report explains experimentations made on 32 US
Navy divers immersed in a water at 3 celcius degrees for
periods up to 8 hours. Electrical resistance heated and
warm water perfused gloves were tried. However, hands
and feet remained dry by communication with the drysuit
Date of publication: September 1990
This report explains experimentations made in correction
of the US Navy saturation procedures published in 1978
that had triggered occasional vestibular decompression
sickness (DCS) cases after upward excursions from storage
depths between 800 and1000 feet of seawater.
Date of publication: June 1990
This document explains experimentations made on
animals to determine whether toxic events accumulated
over a relatively long oxygen exposure reversed on return
to normoxia at the same rates as those of shorter oxygen
exposures.
Date of publication: June 1991
This paper describes experimentations that demonstrated
that microbubbles impair the blood-brain barrier integrity
to protein, causing focal edema.
Year of publication: 1991
This paper describes COMEX procedures used in
November 1992 to reach 701 msw, which is still the
world record.
This successful experimental dive aimed to demonstrate
that the use of Hydreliox enhances the divers’
effectiveness and working capabilities and provides
improved safety and comfort for human intervention on
undersea oil production facilities.
This document relates experiments where speech
Intelligibility was measured with US Navy divers
participating in deep saturation dives and a group of non-
divers to test different communication systems and their
components.
The investigations described in this report included
observing the development rates of visual, auditory-
vestibular, neurological, pulmonary, cardiac, mental
performance, and respiratory effects of hyperoxia over the
O2 pressure range of 1.5–3.0 ATA.
Year of publication: 1998
This document describes the Magnetic Resonance
Imaging (MRI) findings in a patient with spinal
decompression sickness. The authors conclude that
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) may facilitate the
early diagnosis of spinal decompression sickness.
Date of publication: September 1998
The formation of venous gas emboli as a result of
decompression from hyperbaric pressures is well
recognized. Such bubbles may be "silent" or may induce
symptoms of decompression sickness. Since the 70s'
circulating bubbles can be detected by ultrasonic
methods. Detection of circulating bubbles can be used to
indicate the safety of a dive and his decompression
procedure. Continuous-wave Doppler is more widely
used, but the analysis of the signals obtained involves a
degree of subjectivity. Then, the inter-rater agreement on
the grading of intravascular bubble signals can be
important, and statistics of studies with a few records can
be false. Other ultrasonic methods for detecting bubbles
have been evaluated. Echocardiography (two-
dimensional (2D) image or M-mode) can visualise
circulating bubbles in right cavities. Transesophageal
echocardiography is semi-invasive and only used during
experimental animal studies. The ideal detection method
in sport diving is not defined. No element exists to
compare 2D echocardiography and pulsed Doppler in
sport divers. We assessed the interest of these two
methods. Then we defined the methodology of an exam
with these two technics and proposed a grade to quantify
circulating bubbles.
The aim of this study was to assess the effect of the ascent
rate on the production of venous circulating bubbles
during the decompression following a recreational dive.
This paper, published in 1995, is another study that has
been used by other scientists later on. It thoroughly
investigates the various noise sources during diving
operations, including saturation, and provides accurate
measurements.
This document has been provided by Francis Hermans
This study verified the hypothesis that deep heliox diving
might influence postural control and the vestibular system.
Multiple postural controls were made in four divers
before, during, and after an onshore experimental heliox
saturation dive of 32 days. The depth was 450 msw.
Downward excursions to 470 msw were also performed.
Clinical Otolaryngology (also called ENT or Ear, Nose,
Throat) and otoneurological examinations, including
bithermal caloric vestibular testing with
electronystagmography (ENG), were performed.
The authors evaluated CO2 retention in 24 Navy
construction divers breathing air at 1 atm abs (101.3 kPa)
and 40% O2 (40/60) nitrox at 4 atm abs (PO2 of 162.1
kPa) inside a pressure chamber.
The evaluation of decompression tables and individual
sensitivity to decompression disease is primarily based on
the detection of symptoms. Thus, not on physiological but
pathophysiological criteria.
The above situation imposes research into such diagnostic
methods that would allow for the evaluation of the
decompression system applied. Apart from the "bends"
criteria and Doppler monitoring of gas bubbles and blood
flow, hemostasis evaluation may well be an indicator that
the decompression is correct
The "oxygen window" causes a partial pressure difference
of inert gas between the inside and outside
decompression bubbles. Estimates of PO2 and PCO2 in
tissue are necessary for O2 window calculations and any
calculations about the growth or decay of decompression
sickness bubbles, but the estimates involve many
uncertainties.
Using simplifying assumptions, the authors estimated the
O2 window range of environments for tissues having a
wide range of O2 extractions
Authors: Van Liew, Hugh D., and Soumya Raychaudhuri
The authors previously outlined the fundamental
principles governing stabilized bubbles' behavior, such as
the microbubbles being put forward as ultrasound
contrast agents.
In this document, their goal is to develop the idea that
there are limits to the stabilization and to provide a
conceptual framework for comparing bubbles stabilized
by different mechanisms.
Authors: Philip P Foster, Johnny Conkin, Michael R. Powell,
James M. Waligora, & Raj S. Chhikara
The authors hypothesize that metabolic gases play a role
in the initial explosive growth phase of bubble formation
during hypobaric exposures. Models that account for
optimal internal tensions of dissolved gases to predict the
probability of occurrence of venous gas emboli were
statistically fitted to 426 hypobaric exposures from
National Aeronautics and Space Administration tests.
The presence of venous gas emboli in the pulmonary
artery was detected with an ultrasound Doppler detector.
The model fit and parameter estimation were done using
the statistical method of maximum likelihood.
Authors: D. Carturan, A Boussuges, H Burnet, J. Fondarai,
P. Vanuxem, B. Gardette.
The aim of this work was to study the effects of individual
variables which can be assessed non invasively, on the
grades of bubbles detected 60 min after diving by means
of doppler monitoring, in a sample of 40 male scuba
divers. The variables Investigated were: age,
weight. maximal oxygen uptake (VO2 Max) and
percentage of body fat. Bubble signals were graded
according to the code of spencer.
Authors: D Carturan, A Boussuges, P Vanuxem, A
Bar-hen, H Burnet, & B Gardette.
Decompression sickness in diving is recognized as a multi-
factorial phenomenon, depending on several factors, such
as decompression rate and individual susceptibility. The
Doppler ultrasonic detection of circulating venous bubbles
after diving is considered a useful index for decompression
safety because of the relationship between bubbles and
decompression sickness risk. This study aimed to assess the
effects of ascent rate, age, maximal oxygen uptake (VO2
max ), and percent body fat on the production of bubbles
after diving. Fifty male recreational divers performed two
dives at 35 m during 25 min and then ascended in one
case at 9 m/min and in the other case at 17 m/min.
In this study, published in 1991, the risk of decompression
sickness (DCS) during dives on various nitrogen/oxygen
breathing mixes is analyzed using likelihood maximazation
While probabilistic models of human decompression
sickness (DCS) have been successful in describing both
the level and timing of DCS risk in a wide variety of N2-
O2 data, they have failed to account for the observed
DCS risk in the currently available collection of dives with
significant periods of 100% oxygen breathing. The best
model to date, calibrated with over 2300 air and N2-O2
dives, under-predicts the DCS risk of these O2 dives by
60%, whether O2 is breathed during in-water
decompression or during surface decompression
procedures. This overestimation of the benefit of O2 is
due to an exaggerated acceleration of N2 wash-out
during O2 breathing.
Underwater decompression meters or computers sense a
diver's changes of depth in real-time and calculate a
decompression schedule for the individual diver's
exposure. Currently available devices compare calculated
nitrogen tissue tensions to a set of stored “safe” constants.
No explicit quantitative connection between these rules
and the risk of decompression sickness has been
established. Well calibrated probabilistic models, even
though computationally more intense, can be used to
specify decompression procedures tailored to control the
risk of decompression sickness...
Authors: A. Boussuges, P Ambrosi, G Habib, D Cartran, B.
Gardette, JM Sainty
Detection of circulating bubbles can be used as an
indicator of the safety of a dive and his decompression
procedure. Continuous wave Doppler is the more widely
used but the analysis of the signals obtained involve a
degree of subjectivity. Then, the inter-rater agreement on
the grading of intravascular bubble signals can be
important and statistics of studies with a few records can
be falsified. Others ultrasonic methods for detecting
bubbles have been evaluated. Echocardiography can
visualised circulating bubbles in right cavities.
Transesophageal echocardiography is semi invasive and
only used during experimental animal studies.
Authors: J. F. Himm & L. D. Homer
Observations of bubble evolution in rats after
decompression from air dives suggest that bubbles may
resolve more safely when the breathing gas is a heliox
mixture than when it is pure O2.
This is due to a transient period of bubble growth seen
during witches to O2 breathing. In an attempt to
understand these experimental results, the authors
developed a multigas-multi-pressure mathematical model
of bubble evolution.
Authors: M. Jette, K. Sidney, G Blumchen
This article summarizes and presents energy expenditure
values in METS and watts units. Despite its limitations, the
MET concept provides a convenient method to describe
an individual's functional capacity or exercise tolerance as
determined by progressive exercise testing and to define a
repertoire of physical activities in which a person may
participate safely without exceeding a prescribed intensity
level.
This report contains a summary of all known results from
controlled human exposures to hyperbaric O2 at the time
of its publication in January 1993. The data were
collected to analyze and develop predictive models
relating to the risk of developing a symptom of central
nervous system O2 toxicity as a function of time, depth,
and exposure conditions.
This report, published in 1993, discussed the
decompression model ZH-L8 from professor Buhlman.
The decompression algorithm ZH-8 was based on eight
compartments, as suggested. It gave rise to sport diving
decompression tables known under the name "Buhlman
Tables", and massively used by many European sport
divers. Many pioneer manufacturers of diving computers
also used it. It has been followed by the ZH-12 and the
ZH-16, which many diving computer manufacturers still
use.
Authors: A L Harabin, S S Survanshi, L D Homer
This paper, published in March 1994, discussed of
analyzed central nervous system (CNS) oxygen
toxicity symptoms from 1726 controlled human
hyperbaric exposures at PO2 levels ranging from 0.3
to 2.9 atmospheres (atm) using risk models and
maximum likelihood analysis and tested specific
hypotheses with likelihood ratios. The data were
sorted into dry, immersed, no-exercise, and exercise
conditions.
Author: Erik C. Baker
Robert D Workman (1885-1977) made a revision of
Haldane tables and found that the "tissue ratios" for
tolerated overpressure varied by half-time compartment
and by depth. The data showed that the faster half-time
compartments tolerated a greater overpressure ratio than
the slower compartments and that for all compartments,
the tolerated ratios became less with increasing depth.
Instead of using ratios, he described the maximum
tolerated partial pressure of nitrogen and helium for each
compartment at each depth as the "M-value". This concept
is still used by most modern decompression tables.
Authors: R. Arieli, A. Gutterman
The development of oxygen toxicity can be delayed by
intermittent periods of normoxia. In this document,
doctors Arieli and Gutterman show a procedure for
quantifing the recovery during normoxia, so a process
that allows calculating the accumulation of oxygen toxicity
and its recovery to evaluate central nervous system
oxygen toxicity.
This document explains the fundamentals of oxygen
sensing, uptake, and transport. It also shows examples of
extreme respiratory performance, such as diving and high-
altitude survival in mammals and birds, air-breathing in
fish, and those few vertebrates that can survive without
oxygen for several months.
Authors: D.J. Temple, R. Ball, P.K. Weathersby, E.C. Parker,
and S.S. Survanshi
In this study, published in 1999, doctors Temple, Ball,
Weathersby, Parker, and Survanshi compiled descriptions
of DCS cases that occurred after prospective air or
nitrogen-oxygen research dives with the detailed dive
profiles associated with each case.
The aim of this collection of more than 8000 exposures
and more than 400 DCS cases was to allow the analysis of
the relationship between the dive profiles and
manifestations of DCS».
The salivary flow rate and composition of 2 groups of 31
subjects, one group at each extreme of the seasickness
susceptibility scale, were compared. No significant
differences were found between the two groups in flow
rates and electrolyte concentrations of whole resting and
stimulated saliva. Analyse activity and rate of secretion in
resting saliva were significantly higher in subjects
susceptible to seasickness as compared with non-
susceptible subjects. Also, the total protein rate of
secretion in resting saliva was significantly higher in the
susceptible group.
Forty-one percent of the dives were performed within the
decompression limits of the US Navy standard
decompression tables. Risk factors were fatigue,
circumstances suggesting dehydration, and extreme
physical effort. The most common presenting symptoms
were paresthesias, weakness of the legs, lower back pain,
or abdominal pain. Full recovery was achieved in 79% of
the patients.
Spinal symptoms appeared immediately on surfacing in six
of the eight patients who continued to have multiple
neurological sequelae.
Authors: judith Aharon-Peretz, YohaiAdir, Carlos R. Cordon,
Shahar Kol, Nachum Cal, Yefruda Melamed
Although pulmonary barotrauma (PBT) is a well-known
clinical entity, its recognition in divers is sometimes delayed
and its implications for future diving often are
unappreciated. The pulmonary complications of diving
activities range from mere discomfort from mediastinal
emphysema or pneumothorax, or both, to life-threatening
gas embolization. In nine cases described in this paper,
only minor manifestations were associated with PBT
which occurred at or close to the surface, but three of
these four divers were found to have abnormal
pulmonary function.
This document is a presentation of the MT92 for tunneling
operations requiring compressed air work, and an analysis
of the 1st operations performed with this table.
This document is a study of tables made in 1998 for the
Canadian Underwater Minecountermeasures (MCM)
Apparatus (CUMA), a self-contained, semi-closed circuit
breathing apparatus in service with the Canadian Forces
(CF) for diving on underwater mines to a depth of 81
metres of seawater (msw) using a mixture of helium and
oxygen (HeO2). .
Author: K Todnem, H Nyland, H Skeidsvoll, R Svihus, P
Rinck, B K Kambestad, T Riise, J A Aarli.
The increased hyperbaric pressure influences the nervous
system during deep dives. The divers may experience
hand tremors, postural instability, gastrointestinal
problems, somnolence, and cognitive dysfunction. The
neurological symptoms and signs that may occur have
been termed high-pressure neurological syndrome
(HPNS). This syndrome has been known for more than
twenty years.
Authors: J How, A Vijayan, T M Wong
The Singapore Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) projectstarted
compressed air work in Oct 1984. Eleven km of
underground tunnels out of 20 km were built using this
method. Cases of decompression sickness (DCS)
arising from compressed air work are rare with working
pressures less than 1 bar gauge. However, there were 10
cases of DCS in the MRT project who were exposed to less
than 1 bar pressure. The authors present their clinical
features and attempt to explain the observations in
relation to theories of bubble nuclei formation, gas
loading and rate of decompression.
Publisher: American Academy of Underwater Sciences
Proceedings of a workshop held at Duke University
Medical Center in Durham, USA, in March 1991.
Publisher: American academy of underwater sciences
Proceedings of a workshop held in La Jola, California,
USA, in May 1991.
This workshop was sponsored by the National Science
Foundation, Polar Biology, and the American Academy of
Underwater Sciences.
Authors: R.B. Philp & D.J. Mclver
The authors studied the effects of elevated pressures of
inert and narcotic gases on calcium-dependent functions
and cytosolic calcium levels in human blood platelnts,
marine sponge cells and cultured human SK-N-SH
neuroblastoma cells using the intracellular calcium
indicator fura-2 AM. They found that many of the effects
of narcotic gases and of pressure (He) could be explained
by their influence on stimulated free cytosolic Ca2+ levels.
Authors: C. L. Shake, P. K. Weathersby, B. G. Coras, & arid
J. W. Parker
A disabled submarine (DISSUB) crew exposed to
increased atmospheric pressures resulting from flooding,
rupture of air lines, or emergency breathing apparatus use
may incur a decompression obligation and will require
gradual decompression to avoid decompression sickness
(DCS). Decompression in a nitrogen-oxygen mixture is not
always operationally feasible, and decompression from an
air exposure in helium and oxygen could result in isobaric
counter-diffusion DCS.
In this document, Bruce Wienke and Timothy O’Learly,
who are reputed authors on this subject explain their
comprehention on mixed gas diving.
Authors: F. M.N.H. Schramel, A.R.J. Van Keimpena, J. P.
Janssen, R. P. Golding, & P. E. Postmus
The aim of the present study was to analyse pulmonary
function parameters of patients with spontaneous
pneumothorax (SP) in relation to the extent of
emphysema-like changes (ELCs). Pulmonary function tests
were performed in 85 patients with unilateral SP, 6 weeks
after video-assisted thoracoscopy (VAT). In 63 patients,
thoracic computer tomography (CT) was obtained.
Authors: A. Boussuges, S. Abdellaoui, B. Gardette, & JM
Sainty
Since the sixties, when Cross and Bagnis published articles
on Taravana in Polynesian pearl divers, decompression
sickness following breath hold diving has been a widely
debated subject. In this type of dive, the quantity of
dissolved nitrogen is very low and repeated exposure for
several hours is required for the tissues to be
oversaturated for any length of time. This study was
designed to research circulating air bubbles in top level
breath hold divers during training periods, using two-
dimensionnal (2D) echocardiography and continuous
Doppler ultrasound recordings.
Authors: C. Rostain, M. C. Gardette-Chauffour, & R. Naquet
To study the effects of nitrogen addition to the breathing
mixture on sleep disturbances at pressure, two dives were
performed in which helium-nitrogen oxygen mixture was
used up to 450 m sea water (msw). In total, sleep of 12
professional divers was analyzed (i.e., 184 night records).
Sleep was disrupted by compression and by stay at 450
msw: The authors observed an increase in awake periods
and in sleep stages I and II and a decrease in stages III and
IV and in rapid-eye-movement sleep periods.
Authors: G. H. Wiest, G. Lehnert, W. M. Bruck, M.
Meyer, E. G. Hahn, & J. H. Ficker
The purpose of this document in our database is to
understand the phenomenon of lung dryness that may
be associated with too dry air and the procedures to fight
it.
Authors: Yoojin Seo, phd, Kazuya Matsumoto, Youngman
Park, Motohiko Mohri, & Shigeaki Matsumoka
The sleep patterns were examined through three
simulated 20-m nitrox saturation dives. The standard
polysomnography of 12 divers was recorded respectively
for a total of 204 nights, as were patterns of change or
consistency in sleep variables. For the 11 divers in their 20s
and 30s there was nothing unusual about their sleep
variables. However, a reduction of total sleep time in
accordance with the lengthening of sleep latency was
observed.
Publisher: Smithsonian institution
Proceedings of a workshop held in the Smithsonian
institution in Washington DC in October 1999.
It was sponsored by the Office of the Provost, Smithsonian
Institution, Washington, D.C.
