@article{d3d7c59468e54254953fc3c9fa5651ed,
title = "Oxygen-enriched air decreases ventilation during high-intensity fin-swimming underwater",
abstract = "Oxygen-enriched air is commonly used in sport SCUBA-diving and might affect ventilation and heart rate, but only little work exists for applied diving settings. We hypothesized that ventilation is decreased especially during strenuous underwater fin-swimming when using oxygen-enriched air as breathing gas. Ten physically fit divers (age: 25 ± 4; 5 females; 67 ± 113 open-water dives) performed incremental underwater fin-swimming until exhaustion at 4 m water depth with either normal air or oxygen-enriched air (40 % O2) in a double-blind, randomized within-subject design. Heart rate and ventilation were measured throughout the dive and maximum whole blood lactate samples were determined post-exercise. ANOVAs showed a significant effect for the factor breathing gas (F(1, 9) = 7.52; P = 0.023; ƞ2p = 0.455) with a lower ventilation for oxygen-enriched air during fin-swimming velocities of 0.6 m·s-1 (P = 0.032) and 0.8 m·s-1 (P = 0.037). Heart rate, lactate, and the time to exhaustion showed no significant differences. These findings indicate decreased ventilation by an elevated oxygen fraction in the breathing gas when fin-swimming in shallow-water submersion with high velocity (> 0.5 m·s-1). Applications are within involuntary underwater exercise or rescue scenarios for all dives with limited gas supply. ",
keywords = "SCUBA diving, hyperoxia, nitrox, underwater exercise",
author = "Fabian M{\"o}ller and Elena Jacobi and Uwe Hoffmann and Thomas Muth and Jochen Schipke",
year = "2021",
doi = "10.1055/a-1554-5093",
language = "English",
journal = "International journal of sports medicine",
issn = "0172-4622",
publisher = "Georg Thieme Verlag",
}