Arterial blood gases in divers at surface after prolonged breath-hold.
Abstract
PURPOSE:Adaptations during voluntary breath-hold diving have been increasingly investigated
since these athletes are exposed to critical hypoxia during the ascent. However, only
a limited amount of literature explored the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying
this phenomenon. This is the first study to measure arterial blood gases immediately
before the end of a breath-hold in real conditions. METHODS:Six well-trained breath-hold
divers were enrolled for the experiment held at the "Y-40 THE DEEP JOY" pool (Montegrotto
Terme, Padova, Italy). Before the experiment, an arterial cannula was inserted in
the radial artery of the non-dominant limb. All divers performed: a breath-hold while
moving at the surface using a sea-bob; a sled-assisted breath-hold dive to 42 m; and
a breath-hold dive to 42 m with fins. Arterial blood samples were obtained in four
conditions: one at rest before submersion and one at the end of each breath-hold.
RESULTS:No diving-related complications were observed. The arterial partial pressure
of oxygen (96.2 ± 7.0 mmHg at rest, mean ± SD) decreased, particularly after the sled-assisted
dive (39.8 ± 8.7 mmHg), and especially after the dive with fins (31.6 ± 17.0 mmHg).
The arterial partial pressure of CO2 varied somewhat but after each study was close
to normal (38.2 ± 3.0 mmHg at rest; 31.4 ± 3.7 mmHg after the sled-assisted dive;
36.1 ± 5.3 after the dive with fins). CONCLUSION:We confirmed that the arterial partial
pressure of oxygen reaches hazardously low values at the end of breath-hold, especially
after the dive performed with voluntary effort. Critical hypoxia can occur in breath-hold
divers even without symptoms.
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https://hdl.handle.net/10161/20421Published Version (Please cite this version)
10.1007/s00421-019-04296-2Publication Info
Bosco, Gerardo; Paganini, Matteo; Rizzato, Alex; Martani, Luca; Garetto, Giacomo;
Lion, Jacopo; ... Moon, Richard E (2020). Arterial blood gases in divers at surface after prolonged breath-hold. European journal of applied physiology, 120(2). pp. 505-512. 10.1007/s00421-019-04296-2. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/20421.This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this
article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
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Show full item recordScholars@Duke
Richard Edward Moon
Professor of Anesthesiology
Research interests include the study of cardiorespiratory function in humans during
challenging clinical settings including the perioperative period, and exposure to
environmental conditions such as diving and high altitude. Studies have included gas
exchange during diving, the pathophysiology of high altitude and immersion pulmonary
edema, the effect of anesthesia and postoperative analgesia on pulmonary function
and monitoring of tissue oxygenation. Ongoing human studies include the effect of

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