Venous bubble count declines during strenuous exercise after an open sea dive to 30 m.
BACKGROUND
The effect of post-dive exercise on bubble formation remains controversial, although the current practice of divers and aviators is to avoid strenuous exercise after diving. Previously, we have shown that exercising 24 h before a dive, or during a decompression stop, significantly reduces bubble formation in man. The objective of this study was to determine whether a short period of strenuous post-dive exercise promotes venous bubble formation.


METHODS
Seven male military divers performed an open-sea field dive to a maximum depth of 30 m for 30 min. At maximum depth, subjects performed mild underwater fin swimming, followed by standard decompression. Diving was followed by a post-dive exercise session consisting of short, strenuous incremental upright cycle ergometry, up to 85% of maximal oxygen uptake, for about 10 min. Subjects were monitored for venous gas bubbles in the right heart with an echo-imaging system starting 20 min post-dive while in the supine position, during cycle ergometry in the seated upright position, and immediately after exercise in a supine position.


RESULTS
The average number of bubbles was 1.5 +/- 1.4 bubbles x cm(-2) 20 min after diving. Changes in posture from supine to seated upright resulted in significant reduction of bubbles to 0.6 +/- 1.3 bubbles x cm(-2) (p = 0.043), with further reduction to 0.2 +/- 0.3 bubbles x cm(-2) at the end of exercise (p = 0.02). No cases of DCS or intra-pulmonary shunt were observed during or following post-dive exercise.


CONCLUSIONS
These results suggest that post-dive strenuous exercise after a single field dive reduces post-dive gas bubble formation in well-trained military divers. Additional findings are needed for normal sports divers.
Dujić
Zeljko
Z
Department of Physiology, University of Split School of Medicine, Croatia. zdujic@bsb.mefst.hr
Obad
Ante
A
Palada
Ivan
I
Ivancev
Vladimir
V
Valic
Zoran
Z
D000328:Adult; D003665:Decompression Sickness / Q000517:prevention & control*; D004242:Diving / Q000502:physiology*; D015444:Exercise / Q000502:physiology*; D005740:Gases / Q000097:blood*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008887:Military Medicine; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D014680:Veins
D005740:Gases