Mailing List Archive

Mailing List: techdiver

Message Display

(Sorry for the delay, had a few late finishes.)

G4 wrote:

> 
> Scuba divers need heart test
> 11/29/99 14:54 (New York)
> 

etc...

this is a better article, still skimpy on the stats.
(sorry, it wan't available when I was responding to
the 'Another Incomplete Study' post.)

I'm tremendously reassured that you have your divers
checked for PFO. Even with the good doppler results
obtained by WKPP deco techniques, a PFO could mean
disaster with just a little bad luck (such as a cough
which transiently opens up the PFO just at the wrong
time).

JFI, there was an article in Scientific American, which
I can't put my hand on just now, perhaps 3 yrs ago,
on exactly this topic.

I worried about PFO ever since, until recently I was able
to have an echocardiograph as part of a (non-diving
related) research project.

Also just for interest, I don't have the exact figures,
but my _impression_ is that substantially fewer than 25%
of the patients I study in the OR have a PFO. A small
percentage have an atrial septal defect (in this context,
a permanently open connection between the right and left
sides of the heart). Very few adults have a VSD, and they
mostly have a loud cardiac murmur and are unlikely to pass
a well conducted diving medical without it being detected.
(VSDs generally do not result in a right- to left- shunt in
any circumstances likely to confront an adult physically
able to wear diving equipment.)

As noted by Bill Wolk, transcranial doppler will detect
r to l shunts, though without identifying its mechanism
(presumably one could go on to sort that out if one was
present). It would certainly be cheaper and could be
more easily available than formal echocardiography.

Regards,

Gerard Stainsby
--
Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'.
Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.

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]