Posted by BillP on May 12, 2001 at 15:26:12:
In Reply to: Re: Just a thought on Red Blood Cell rigidity posted by Jim Hoffmann on May 12, 2001 at 13:28:35:
The NAUI article that you mentioned yesterday and posted above is very interesting and Robert Monaghan clearly put a lot of effort into it. He gets his quotes in his article about "sickle cell like" effects from a British lay science magazine called New Science (similar to Discover Magazine in the US.) The articles are not scientific papers but rather just discuss interesting science news. But in the October 1987 article that he quotes, he mentions (but unfortunately doesn't include in a reference list) the study by Dr. Maurice Cross from the Diving Diseases Research Centre in the UK. That study looks like the best lead that I've come up with so far, so I'm trying to track it down. (Haven't been able to find it yet, but if any of you do, please let me know!) It will be interesting to see exactly what Dr. Cross looked at.
BTW, I reread my post to Steve below and see that my answer to his first question was unclear (and even wrong). Red blood cell membranes can clearly be affected by hydrostatic pressure. It is possible that the effect could be to make them less flexible. I just haven't seen evidence that any changes caused in recreational divers are clinically significant, that it is specifically nitrogen that causes the effect, that increased partial pressures of helium or oxygen do not cause the effect, or that helium alleviates the effects of nitrogen as some people seem to be claiming.
Your post is the best link yet that I've found to some potentially helpful info. Thanks again. You said that you might be able to get more info over the weekend and on Monday. Please let me know if you do.
Bill