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on 10/3/02 6:28 AM, Steve Schultz at se2schul@st*.ma*.uw*.ca* wrote: > I took this from the french tech list. Anyone have more info? SNIP > NEW TEST FOR DECOMPRESSION ILLNESS > Doctors at the University of New South Wales > Department of Diving and Hyperbaric Medicine claim to > have discovered a simple method of identifying > decompression illness. > Research carried out on scuba divers revealed that > after every dive between one and three bubbles are > visible in the fluid that lubricates the eyeball. These > are visible in the tear film in the lower eyelid. In case of > divers with decompression illness, between 20 and 30 > bubbles can be observed. > "We hope that a remote doctor, suspicious that a > patient may have the bends, will be able to do a > simple,inexpensive examination of the patient's tear film. > Based on the number of air bubbles, they will then be > able to make a decision on whether the patient needs to > be flown out for further treatment," said Dr Bennett, the > report's author. > Monday 4 March, 2002 Hi Steve Sometimes the simplest things huh ? It kind of reminds me of 2 years ago when my wife discovered a little device called a 'Maybe Baby' as a way of establishing fertility. It's basically a little tube of plastic, which looks exactly like a lipstick case. It has a tiny green LED at one end and a clear plastic lens at the other which is backlit by the LED. All you (errr ... I mean your wife/GF ;-) does is dip her finger on her tongue and wipe the clear plastic lens transferring a small amount of saliva to the lens, then let it sit for 5 minutes to dry. You then pick up the little device and put the cap on it. The cap has a small magnifying lens which allows you to see the pattern of dried saliva by pressing the LED to backlight the lens. The little device looks like it would cost about a buck eighty to be made in China, so we're not talking 'hi-tech' here. It has been known for decades that one way a women's body changes throughout a monthly cycle is in regard to her saliva. On normal days in the cycle the pattern of dried saliva is a random spotty, pebbly appearance. On the day of ovulation the pattern changes to a very intense, well defined 'fern' pattern. The 3 days or so either side of ovulation shows a transitional pattern between the ferns and spots. So once you establish ovulation you can plan to either avoid, or achieve conception. Hardly anyone we know had ever heard of it and it's never mentioned by Doctors (in Australia). There are web sites all over the place for the devices, if anyone is interested in avoiding more kids (thus leaving more cash for dive gear/trips/He ;-) see http://www.maybebaby.ie/index.htm Maybe there is a cheap, simple little device in our collective future that will allow our non-medico buddies to count bubbles in our eyelids which we can use to fine tune our deco.. ? As Trey said, this would only be showing us the symptoms, but if we can see how much we each individually bubble on a given profile and how quick we clear, it's another piece of the puzzle to get the prevention (profile) right for our individual physiology. Getting back on topic ... I found Mike Bennett via the UoNSW website, he's in the Hyperbaric Medicine unit down there. I have emailed him asking if there is any further info/papers he can release to let us know what he is up to. Whatever I get back I will post here and on Quest. regards dean laffan real world productions melbourne, australia ph +613-9419-3966 Mobile 0418-525-315 -- "There is no safe blood alcohol level for diving and few people in their right mind would consider diving under it's influence." - Dr Carl Edmonds - Diving Medicine for Scuba Divers "The effect of moderate consumption of these beverages (including alcohol) is of little consequence .." - Brett Gilliam - TDI -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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