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Well that's why we wanted know about your Table 6A -that's a very serious treatment protocol typically used for "Hyper-Acute" critical dive casualties suffering from Arterial (Air) Gas Embolism with occluded blood flow causing organ ischemia. . .No matter; it's fascinating. ☺ Have returned to the gym today.
DDM-
PMFJIH, but purely out of conservatism I had asked my cardiologist about doing an ultrasound (echocardiogram) to make sure I didn't have a PFO or any other heart condition that might affect my diving. (I'm an older diver getting back into things.) He seemed certain that simple non-invasive procedure could provide a 100% certain result, in this case "no problems, no pfo". Was he wrong to think it is that simple to find a PFO?
--Red
I had a much simpler non-invasive pre-diagnostic screening procedure called a Transcranial Doppler (see links below) back in 2009 as part of a free experimental university study at the time, which fortunately showed no indication of a PFO.DDM-
PMFJIH, but purely out of conservatism I had asked my cardiologist about doing an ultrasound (echocardiogram) to make sure I didn't have a PFO or any other heart condition that might affect my diving. (I'm an older diver getting back into things.) He seemed certain that simple non-invasive procedure could provide a 100% certain result, in this case "no problems, no pfo". Was he wrong to think it is that simple to find a PFO?
--Red
Hi Red,
No worries at all. Happy to answer questions. A transthoracic echocardiogram (TTE) with bubble contrast will detect a clinically significant PFO. It's a relatively benign procedure but does involve an IV. Some cardiologists prefer a transesophageal echocardiogram (TEE) but it's slightly more invasive.
It's also worthwhile to consider what you would do with the results of a PFO test. Would you dive more conservatively if you knew you had a PFO? Arguably, conservative diving is a good idea for anyone who's getting on in age; you could save yourself the bill and just dive conservatively, i.e. stay well away from the no-stop limits, learn to dive nitrox, stay warm on decompression, and don't exert yourself on the bottom.
Best regards,
DDM
Wouldn't it be important to know about an existing FPO in the event of an accident requiring a decompression chamber? It might affect what treatment plan the doctors go with.