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This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: 106/3/1004    most recent 91246.2008v1 Submit a response Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Bai, Y. Articles by Chon, K. H. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Bai, Y. Articles by Chon, K. H.

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The Physiology and Pathophysiology of the Hyperbaric and Diving Environments

Impairment of the autonomic nervous function during decompression sickness in swine

¹Departments of Biomedical Engineering, ²Family Medicine, and ³Physiology and Biophysics, State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, New York; and ⁴Naval Medical Research Center and Uniformed Services University, Bethesda, Maryland

Submitted 17 September 2008 ; accepted in final form 5 January 2009

Dysautonomia has been observed in many cardiac diseases; however, its effect in decompression sickness (DCS) has not been well examined largely due to the difficulty in obtaining experimental data in human or animal subjects. In this study, we examine how DCS affects the autonomic nervous system's (ANS) dynamics in swine. Baseline and post-DCS electrocardiograms were obtained via telemetry recordings and compared. These data were analyzed using both the power spectrum method and our recently developed principal dynamic mode (PDM) analysis. PDM is able to separate the dynamic tones of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. Both methods demonstrated a statistically significant decrease (>55%; P < 0.05) in the dynamics of both branches of the autonomic nervous system in the swine with DCS compared with the control condition. In cardiac diseases such as myocardial infarction, ANS imbalance is often associated with a significant increase in sympathetic tone, which may or may not be counterbalanced by parasympathetic nervous activity. However, the effect of DCS is such that both branches of the ANS are depressed >55% compared with the control condition, suggesting impairment, but not imbalance, of the ANS.

principal dynamic mode; autonomic nervous system; sympathetic; parasympathetic; heart rate variability