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Tom,

I use aspirin when diving (1 "baby" aspirin every morning).  Now that
I have said that, I would like to make a few points.

1) At LOW doses, aspirin does have an effect on platelet aggregation
and clumping, and this is thought to be beneficial in those cases
where the diver is "on the fence" (so to speak) DCS wise.  The diver
who is in the situation where he is at increased risk for DCS, but
does not have frank symptoms or overt DCS/DCI.  However, the only
way to prove this is to expose test animals (or divers) to a dive
profile that has a known low DCS incidence rate (ie, 1-2 percent)
and track these test subjects over many tens of thousands of dives
with aspirin on board.  This would then give us some solid numbers
on what aspirin does to DCS rate in the case in question.  However,
the number of dives must be large, or else we cannot establish any 
kind of statistical validity to the results.

I think we would find that aspirin reduces the incidence of DCS
in these groups by a measureable and statistically significant
amount, but it will in all probability be small - ie, baseline
rate of 2.00%, with aspirin the rate might be 1.75%.  I will take
any reduction in my DCS rate if the treatment is essentially harmless.

At the dose of 1 "baby" aspirin per day, the risk of ulcer problems is
slim to none (take it with your daily meal to reduce gastric irritation),
and I do not think anyone would argue that 1 "baby" aspirin taken at
breakfast is going to mask DCS/DCI pain later in the day.

However, the only studies to date on aspirin and DCS has been with
very provocative pressure insults, and did not show any difference in
DCS/DCI rates.  I personally question the validity of these tests (small
sample size, extremely provocative stimuli).

So, I really think the ball is still up in the air as to aspirin 
and DCS/DCI as to any valid studies. 

Hope this helps, and doesn't confuse things even more.

John
Submariner Research, Ltd.
(johncrea@de*.co*)

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