Free fatty acid responses to tilting after water immersion

¹ Aerospace Medical Research Laboratories, Aerospace Medical Division, AFSC, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio

Water immersion is accompanied by decreased urinary excretion of noradrenaline and is followed by orthostatic intolerance. The latter has been postulated to result from impaired noradrenaline metabolism. Such an impairment would produce, in addition, a diminished rise in plasma free fatty acids in response to tilting. This response was measured in normals after office control, water immersion and exposure to a thermal environment identical to that found in the immersion facility. The plasma free fatty acid response to a tilt is impaired after water immersion as would be expected if sympathetic nervous system dysfunction is involved in postimmersion orthostatic intolerance.

Submitted on July 10, 1964