PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Tanja Mijacika
AU  - Zeljko Dujic
TI  - Sports-related lung injury during breath-hold diving
AID  - 10.1183/16000617.0052-2016
DP  - 2016 Dec 01
TA  - European Respiratory Review
PG  - 506--512
VI  - 25
IP  - 142
4099  - http://err.ersjournals.com/content/25/142/506.short
4100  - http://err.ersjournals.com/content/25/142/506.full
SO  - EUROPEAN RESPIRATORY REVIEW2016 Dec 01; 25
AB  - The number of people practising recreational breath-hold diving is constantly growing, thereby increasing the need for knowledge of the acute and chronic effects such a sport could have on the health of participants. Breath-hold diving is potentially dangerous, mainly because of associated extreme environmental factors such as increased hydrostatic pressure, hypoxia, hypercapnia, hypothermia and strenuous exercise.In this article we focus on the effects of breath-hold diving on pulmonary function. Respiratory symptoms have been reported in almost 25% of breath-hold divers after repetitive diving sessions. Acutely, repetitive breath-hold diving may result in increased transpulmonary capillary pressure, leading to noncardiogenic oedema and/or alveolar haemorrhage. Furthermore, during a breath-hold dive, the chest and lungs are compressed by the increasing pressure of water. Rapid changes in lung air volume during descent or ascent can result in a lung injury known as pulmonary barotrauma. Factors that may influence individual susceptibility to breath-hold diving-induced lung injury range from underlying pulmonary or cardiac dysfunction to genetic predisposition.According to the available data, breath-holding does not result in chronic lung injury. However, studies of large populations of breath-hold divers are necessary to firmly exclude long-term lung damage.Breath-hold diving may result in acute respiratory symptoms, but does not lead to chronic lung dysfunction http://ow.ly/D03r302uMOD