Journal of Applied Physiology, Vol 49, Issue 6 1099-1106, Copyright © 1980 by American Physiological Society
Thermal responses in humans exposed to cold hyperbaric helium-oxygen
C. A. Piantadosi and E. D. Thalmann
The relationship of metabolic heat production to skin and core
temperatures, cutaneous heat flow, and respiratory heat loss was measured
in 10 male subjects cooled in hyperbaric helium at 20.7 ATA and 15 or 20
degrees C for 60-120 min. Under these conditions, metabolic heat production
tended to compensate for the sum of convective and radiant heat losses from
the skin but did not increase sufficiently to compensate for additional
respiratory heat losses. There was a positive correlation between
respiratory heat loss and fall in rectal temperature. Individual
variability in ventilatory response to cold hyperbaric helium exposure as
shown by a wide range of minute ventilation-to-oxygen consumption ratios
(VE/VO2) was similar to that reported during cold water immersion. Subjects
with high VE/VO2 had low mean physiological shell insulation values and
lost more heat through the skin as well as through the respiratory tract
than subjects with low VE/VO2.
