Article Sidebar
Article Details
Copyright remains in the Author’s name. The work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution - Noncommercial Works License. Authors are required to complete and sign an Author Agreement form that outlines Author and Publisher rights and terms of publication. The Agreement form should be uploaded along with other submissions files and any submission will be considered incomplete without it [forthcoming].
Material submitted for publication in the SAMJ is accepted provided it has not been published or submitted for publication elsewhere. Please inform the editorial team if the main findings of your paper have been presented at a conference and published in abstract form, to avoid copyright infringement. The SAMJ does not hold itself responsible for statements made by the authors.
Previously published images
If an image/figure has been previously published, permission to reproduce or alter it must be obtained by the authors from the original publisher and the figure legend must give full credit to the original source. This credit should be accompanied by a letter indicating that permission to reproduce the image has been granted to the author/s. This letter should be uploaded as a supplementary file during submission.
Main Article Content
Carbon Dioxide Changes in Hyperventilation and Breath-hold Diving
Abstract
Breath-hold dives to a depth of 10 metres (33 ft) in fresh water at 1 640 metres (6 000 ft) above sea level, at atmospheric pressure (Ps) 625 mmHg, were performed by 5 male divers. The water pressure at 10 metres at this altitude is approximately 1,83 ATA (1 368 mmHg). Peripheral venous blood from the right antecubital vein was analysed for combined CO2 content (cC02) by the Van Slyke method and expressed in cC02 vol.%. The CO2 content of peripheral venous blood is lowered by hyperventilation and increased by repeated breath-hold diving. Individual divers had different rates of CO2 elimination from blood to alveolar air. CO2 elimination is also not the same in anyone diver from day to day. It is postulated that the effects of hyperventilation are unpredictable in different divers under the same diving conditions. This may have contributed to the deaths of several divers in South Africa.
