WhackUmStackUm

This is the abstract from a recent research paper published by DAN's Europe Research Division and others. I thought that some of our free-diving members may be interested, and would like to following up by reading the full article and doing some additional investigation. I apologize in advance for any typos.




Introduction: After repetitive deep dives, breath-hold divers are often affected by a syndrome characterized by typical symptoms such as cough, sensation of chest constriction, blood-striated expectorate (hemoptysis) and, rarely, with various degrees of dyspnea. The aim of this work is an epidemiological investigation to evaluate the prevalence of acute respiratory symptoms (ARS) in breath-hold divers (BHDs) in practicing breath-hold diving.

Materials and methods: A retrospective investigation has been performed using specific questionnaires completed by a selected sample of free-divers (212 breath-hold instructors - 194 male, 18 female; mean age 34 +-6.91 years); affiliated with the International School for Education and Research of Free-Diving. We also investigated possible factors for post-dive acute respiratory symptoms. Furthermore, the authors report that a severe case of acute pulmonary edema occurred to a healthy and experienced breath-hold instructor. We reported a detailed CT scan and follow-up CT scans three days later, with another scan reported 10 days later as well.

Result: A total of 56 subjects (26.4%) reported previous events such as cough, thoracic constraint, hemoptysis, associated with various degrees of dyspnea as confirmation of pulmonary involvement. Forty-five fo them (82%) reported signs of true hemoptysis and a high degree of dyspnea. A CT scan revealed the presence of patchy bilateral lung opacities at the level of superior and parahilar zones; follow-up CT scans three days later and 10 days later are also reported.

Conclusion: Our data show that this is a common condition amoung experianced BHDs. In our opinion, this is particularly interesting for the free-diving community.

BlackJeep

I've dabbled and somewhat followed the sport for roughly 13 years but never took it seriously enough to get certified and take formal training. Tomorrow I complete the FII Freediver Level I class in Destin.

I had to look up the terms dyspnea and hemoptysis but I must say and I've not heard of these events being common in the sport. That's not to say they aren't.

How old is the paper?

WhackUmStackUm

It was just published.