Mailing List Archive Mailing List Archive
With yet another person having seen the scene in the ABYSS with the rat breathing liquid and asked the question - is this real and why cant we use it, I thought I would bring up the subject of a more practical use for perflourocarbons in the treatment of DCS. More than eight years ago I went to a meeting of the Underwater Association in the UK and heard a talk on the use of perflourocarbons as DCS treatment. (I think it was by a D Atkinson but I cant remember). The UK navy was interested in the treatment of submariners who end up on the surface after submarine escape from 100 M + and what the likelyhood of having one hundred men on the surface with some degree of bends. With no rescue vessel capabil of accomodating this number of victims they wanted an easy way to treat them. Since perflourocarbons have such a high solubility for oxygen and other gases it would act as a sponge and soak up any excess gas coming out of a supersaturated solution (ie blood). It would not act prophylactically if taken before a dive but could be used as soon as a diver reached the surface and started displaying symptoms of DCS or embolism. I tried looking aroung the literature and only found a couple of references to its use on hamsters. What they did was stick a few of the hamsters down at 6 ats (or more I'm not sure) keep them there for a while and then explosively decompress them. Quick as they could they then injected then with some PFC. Now not all of the furry little guys lived but those that did had no ill effects as compared to the controls who all died. So here is what we have: a none toxic blood expander in clinical trials in the US that could be carried in a first aid kit and given to a diver in an emergency to reduce the supersaturation of their blood and hence reducing the damage caused by DCS. Is someone working on this somewhere, does anyone else know anything about it, is there some reason why it would not work? Gibbo John M. Gibbons 0171-793-1101 Home Univ. London School of Pharmacy 0171-582-6561 Fax Dept. of Pharmaceutical Chemistry 0171-753-5800 Wk ex 4882 jgibbo@cl*.ul*.ac*.uk* or jgibbo@ul*.ac*.uk*
Navigate by Author:
[Previous]
[Next]
[Author Search Index]
Navigate by Subject:
[Previous]
[Next]
[Subject Search Index]
[Send Reply] [Send Message with New Topic]
[Search Selection] [Mailing List Home] [Home]