From sleep apnea to breath-hold diving

[trux]

Today, there was published a new scientific study by Dr. Lindholm with an interesting title, at PubMed. Unfortunately there is no abstract, and I do not have access to the academic library, so cannot telll you any details, but would be interested to know more about the topic. If any of you can access it and report some summary, it would be certainly sappreciated by many.

CIH: from sleep apnea to breath-hold diving : Is sympathetic activation inevitable?

 

[Anders]

I have access so I checked out the journal, but found nothing. Couldn't even find the article on their website. It seems pubmed is faster at picking up new publications than the journal is at putting them out online...

 

[Johan Andersson]

It is on the journal's website now (under "Online First"). SpringerLink - Journal

This is not a new study (and it is not from Dr Lindholm, but Dr Chapleau). It is an editorial comment on the study "Peripheral chemoreflex regulation of sympathetic vasomotor tone in apnea divers" SpringerLink - Journal Article by Breskovic et al that is to be published in the same journal.

So basically, in the editorial comment, Dr Chapleau discusses some questions that he thought of when reading the study by Breskovic et al.

Is the degree of CIH (chronic intermittent hypoxia) in divers sufficient to induce sustained sympathetic activation?
Are healthy divers protected by absence of co-existing disease/risk factors and/or adaptive responses that oppose chemoreceptor and sympathetic activation?
Can modulation of molecular signaling pathways in carotid body prevent CIH-induced sympathoexcitation?
Is sympathetic activation inevitable in humans subjected to CIH?

As a very short summary; studying breath-hold divers may give insights of value for understanding changes seen in pathological conditions involving hypoxia.

 

[Anders]

I guess I was couldn't see it there last night, but now it is there...

Also, it highlights the fact that although some freedivers experience similar conditions as patients that suffer from sleep-apnea, freedivers do not experience the same negative effects.