“Lung packing” in breath hold-diving: An impressive case of pulmo–cardiac interaction

oleh: Jochen D. Schipke, Malte Kelm, Klaus Siegmund, Thomas Muth, Burkhard Sievers, Stephan Steiner

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: Elsevier 2015-01-01

Deskripsi

There is a complex interaction between the heart and the lungs. We report on a healthy female who performs breath hold diving at a high, international level. In order to optimize pressure equalization during diving and to increase oxygen available, apneists employed a special breathing maneuver, so called “lung packing”. Based on cardiac MRI we could demonstrate impressive effects of this maneuver on left ventricular geometry and hemodynamics. Beyond the fact, that our findings support the concept of pulmonary –cardiac interrelationship, it should be emphasized, that the reported, extreme breathing maneuver could have detrimental consequences due to reduction of stroke volume and cardiac output.