Cialoni DaniloDAN Europe · Research division
Cialoni Danilo
About
53
Publications
18,338
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638
Citations
Citations since 2017
Introduction
Dr Danilo Cialoni is interested on the physiological mechanisms that govern the adaptation in response to the changes in ambient pressure with particular focus on SCUBA and Breath-Hold-Diving. He also is an expert free divers and began his studies due to an accident of Breath-Hold-Diving pulmonary edema that occurred on himself.
Currently he conduct research for DAN Europe Foundation and is PHD student in Brain Mind and computer science at the University of Padua.
Additional affiliations
September 2007 - present
Dan Europe Foundation
Position
- Area Supervisor
Education
September 1986 - October 1992
University of Pisa
Field of study
- Hyperbaric medicine
Publications
Publications (53)
Background
The aim of this work was to investigate the serum amino acid (AA) changes after a breath-hold diving (BH-diving) training session under several aspects including energy need, fatigue tolerance, nitric oxide (NO) production, antioxidant synthesis and hypoxia adaptation. Twelve trained BH-divers were investigated during an open sea trainin...
Purpose
Divers can experience cognitive impairment due to inert gas narcosis (IGN) at depth. Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) rules neuronal connectivity/metabolism to maintain cognitive function and protect tissues against oxidative stress (OxS). Dopamine and glutamate enhance BDNF bioavailability. Thus, we hypothesized that lower circulat...
Inert gas bubbles in tissues and in blood have been historically considered as the only triggering factors for DCS, but now many other factors are considered to affect the final outcome of a decompression profile for a certain individual. In this sense, inflammation seems to play a relevant role, not only due to the physical damage of tissues by th...
Competitive Offshore Ocean Sailing is a highly demanding activity in which subjects are exposed to psychophysical stressors for a long time. To better define the physiological adaptations, we investigated the stress response of subjects exposed to 3-days long ocean navigation with disruption of circadian rhythms. 6 male subjects were involved in th...
(1) Background: SCUBA diving can influence changes of several hematological parameters (HP) but the changes of HP in the decompression phases are still unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate any possible relationship between HP and predisposition to inert gas bubble formation after a single recreational dive. (2) Methods: Blood, obtained...
Background
Breath-hold diving (BH-diving) is associated to extreme environmental conditions, prolonged physical activity, and complex adaptation mechanisms to supply enough O2 to vital organs. Consequently, one of the biggest effects could be an increased exercise-induced muscle fatigue, in both skeletal and cardiac muscles that can induce an incre...
The metabolism of nitric oxide plays an increasingly interesting role in the physiological response of the human body to extreme environmental conditions, such as underwater, in an extremely cold climate, and at low oxygen concentrations. Field studies need the development of analytical methods to measure nitrite and nitrate in plasma and red blood...
Introduction
Nitric oxide (NO) is an essential signaling molecule modulating the endothelial adaptation during breath-hold diving (BH-diving). This study aimed to investigate changes in NO derivatives (NOx) and total antioxidant capacity (TAC), searching for correlations with different environmental and hyperbaric exposure.
Materials and methods
B...
Introduction: Heart rate variability (HRV) during underwater diving has been infrequently investigated because of environment limitations and technical challenges. This study aims to analyze HRV changes while diving at variable hyperoxia when using open circuit (OC) air diving apparatus or at constant hyperoxia using a closed-circuit rebreather (CC...
Purpose: Offshore Ocean Sailing is a highly demanding activity in which subjects are exposed to psychophysical stressors for a long time. To better define the physiological adaptations, we investigated the stress response of subjects exposed to 3-days long ocean navigation with disruption of circadian rhythms.
Methods: 6 male subjects were involved...
We report Blood Oxygen Level Dependent (BOLD) signal changes recorded in the brain of an elite breath-hold diver during voluntary dry long breath-hold by means of fMRI. An independent component analysis (ICA) method was applied to extract brain areas that are putatively involved in the apnea process network. We discuss the hypothesis that these BOL...
Background: Several mechanisms allow humans to resist the extreme conditions encountered during breath-hold diving. Available nitric oxide (NO) is one of the major contributors to such complex adaptations at depth and oxidative stress is one of the major collateral effects of diving. Due to technical difficulties, these biomarkers have not so far b...
Saturation diving allows divers to reduce the risk of decompression sickness while working at depth for prolonged periods but may increase reactive oxygen species (ROS) production. Such modifications can affect endothelial function by exacerbating oxidative stress. This study investigated the effects of saturation diving on oxidative stress damage....
INTRODUCTION: Healthy individuals may present with acute pulmonary edema when exposed to extreme environments (high-altitude or deep diving) or while performing strenuous exercises. Recent data support the hypothesis that these forms of acute pulmonary edema might be due to a limited number of stimuli, often overlapping each other, inducing pulmona...
The purpose of this study was to analyze the correlation between decompression-related physiological stress markers, given by inflammatory processes and immune system activation and changes in Heart Rate Variability, evaluating whether Heart Rate Variability can be used to estimate the physiological stress caused by the exposure to hyperbaric envir...
Introduction: Nitric oxide (NO) plays an important role in the physiology and pathophysiology of diving, and the related endothelial dysfunction and oxidative stress roles have been extensively investigated. However, most available data have been obtained before and after the dive, whilst, as far as we know, no data is available about what happens...
In situ evaluation of human brain performance and arousal remains challenging during operational circumstances, hence the need for a rapid, reliable and reproducible tool. Here we hypothesized that the Critical flicker fusion frequency (CFFF) reflecting/requiring visual integration, visuo-motor skills and decision-taking process might be a powerful...
Background:
The physiological and pathophysiological mechanisms that govern diving, both self-contained underwater breathing apparatus (SCUBA) and breath-hold diving (BH-diving), are in large part well known, even if there are still many unknown aspects, in particular about cell metabolism during BH-diving. The scope of this study was to investiga...
Introduction: Scuba diving is an important marine tourism sector, but requires proper safety standards to reduce the risks and increase accessibility to its market. To achieve safety goals, safety awareness and positive safety attitudes in recreational scuba diving operations are essential. However, there is no published research exclusively focusi...
Introduction: The popularity of SCUBA diving is steadily increasing together with the number of dives and correlated diseases per year. The rules that govern correct decompression procedures are considered well known even if the majority of Decompression Sickness (DCS) cases are considered unexpected confirming a bias in the “mathematical ability”...
This study is about a system for monitoring the
glucose of scuba divers while underwater. The system measures
the glucose of the diver at intervals of five minutes and transmits
the recorded data to the surface surpervision team. This is
specifically beneficial to the diabetic scuba divers, allowing their
supervisers to monitor their glucose level...
Divers Alert Network (DAN) created a database (DB) with a big amount of dive related data which has been collected since 1994 within the scope of Dive Safety Laboratory (DSL) project. The aim of this study is to analyze the DB using data mining techniques. The clustering of divers by their health and demographic information and reveal significant d...
Abstract
INTRODUCTION:
Neurological symptoms after breathhold (BH) diving are often referred to as "Taravana" and considered a form of decompression sickness. However, the presence of "high" gas embolism after BH diving has never been clearly shown. This study showed high bubble formation after BH diving.
MATERIALS AND METHODS:
We performed transth...
INTRODUCTION: Insulin-dependent diabetes has been considered a scuba diving contraindication. This is currently being reconsidered for well-controlled diabetes. We developed a real-time continuous glucose monitor (CGM) to check glycemia, or blood glucose (BG), during diving, both for prospective studies and to increase diabetic diver safety, allowi...
Decompression sickness (DCS) is a systemic disorder assumed due to gas bubbles, but additional factors are likely to play a role. Circulating microparticles, vesicular structures with diameters of 0.1 to 1.0 µm, have been implicated but data in human divers has been lacking. We hypothesized that the number of blood-borne annexin V-positive micropar...
Breath-hold diving-induced hemoptysis (BH-DIH) has been reported in about 25% breath-hold divers (BHD) and is characterized by dyspnea, coughing, hemoptysis and chest pain. We investigated whether eNOS G894T, eNOS T786C and ACE insertion/deletion I/D genetic variants, are possible BH-DIH risk factors.
108 experienced healthy instructor BHDs with th...
The main objective of the CADDY project is to replace a human buddy diver with an autonomous underwater vehicle and add a new autonomous surface vehicle to improve monitoring, assistance, and safety of the diver's mission. However, the use of robots underwater may also bring additional safety requirements. Within the scope of this research, the exi...
Inert gas accumulated after multiple recreational dives can generate tissue supersaturation and bubble formation when ambient pressure decreases. We hypothesized that this could happen even if divers respected the currently recommended 24-hour pre-flight surface interval (PFSI).
We performed transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) on a group of 56 hea...
By using dive tables or diving computers, divers are effectively using
decompression algorithms to manage the risk of developing decompression
sickness (DCS). They dictate the time allowed at each depth before the dive
converts from no-decompression dive into a decompression dive, as well as the
decompression stops needed for a decompression dive (...
Compared with other sports, SCUBA diving remains a relatively safe activity but
precisely defining risk is important. Diving databases such as the Diving Safety
Laboratory (DSL) collection by Divers Alert Network (DAN) Europe can provide new
insights into the causes of diving accidents, including decompression sickness (DCS)
incidence with respect...
Introduction:
Flying after diving may increase decompression sickness risk (DCS), but strong evidence indicating minimum preflight surface intervals (PFSI) is missing.
Methods:
On return flights after a diving week on a live-aboard, 32 divers were examined by in-flight echocardiography with the following protocol: 1) outgoing flight, no previous...
Hyperoxia causes oxidative stress. Breath-hold diving is associated with transient hyperoxia followed by hypoxia and a build-up of carbon dioxide (CO₂), chest-wall compression and significant haemodynamic changes. This study analyses variations in plasma oxidative stress markers after a series of repetitive breath-hold dives.
Thirteen breath-hold d...
Scuba and breath-hold divers are compared to investigate whether endothelial response changes are similar despite different exposure(s) to hyperoxia.
14 divers (nine scuba and five breath-holding) performed either one scuba dive (25m/25 minutes) or successive breath-hold dives at a depth of 20 meters, adding up to 25 minutes of immersion time in a...
After repetitive deep dives, breath-hold divers are often affected by a syndrome characterized by typical symptoms such as cough, sensation of chest constriction, blood-striated expectorate (hemoptysis) and, rarely, an overt acute pulmonary edema syndrome, often together with various degrees of dyspnea. The aim of this work is an epidemiological in...
The purpose of the study was to analyze the ultrasound lung comets (ULCs) variation, which are a sign of extra-vascular lung water. Forty-two healthy individuals performed breath-hold diving in different conditions: dynamic surface apnea; deep variable-weight apnea and shallow, face immersed without effort (static maximal and non-maximal). The numb...
During maximal breath-holding six healthy elite breath-hold divers, after an initial "easy-going" phase in which cardiovascular changes resembled the so-called "diving response", exhibited a sudden and severe rise in blood pressure during the "struggle" phase of the maneuver. These changes may represent the first tangible expression of a defense re...
Cardiac response to breath-hold diving in human beings is primarily characterized by the reduction of both heart rate and stroke volume. By underwater Doppler-echocardiography we observed a "restrictive/constrictive" left ventricular filling pattern compatible with the idea of chest squeeze and heart compression during diving. We hypothesized that...
Breath-hold divers may experience haemoptysis during diving. Central pooling of blood as well as compression of pulmonary gas content can damage the integrity of the blood-gas barrier, resulting in alveolar hemorrhage. The single-breath carbon monoxide test (DL,CO) was used to investigate the blood-gas barrier following diving. The study population...
Ultrasound lung comets (ULCs) detected by chest sonography are a simple, noninvasive, semiquantitative sign of increased extravascular lung water. Pulmonary edema may occur in elite apnea divers, possibly triggered by centralization of blood flow from the periphery to pulmonary vessels. We assessed the prevalence of ULCs in top-level breath-hold di...
To evaluate the separate cardiovascular response to body immersion and increased environmental pressure during diving, 12 healthy male subjects (mean age 35.2 +/- 6.5 yr) underwent two-dimensional Doppler echocardiography in five different conditions: out of water (basal); head-out immersion while breathing (condition A); fully immersed at the surf...
Breath-hold diving induces, in marine mammals, a reduction of cardiac output due to a decrease of both heart rate and stroke volume. Cardiovascular changes in humans during breath-hold diving are only partially known due to the technical difficulty of studying fully immersed subjects. Recently, a submersible echocardiograph has been developed, allo...
Projects
Projects (4)
Although several issues converge in attributing to NO handling and the oxidative stress important roles in the physiology of diving and in the generation of DCI, the supporting experimental evidence is still weak and no clear preventive or curative approach can yet be outlined, with the exception of the expensive and time-consuming re-compression procedure. In our opinion, the availability of basic measurements related to diving physiology without the complications related to DCI is mandatory in order to design more targeted and efficient approaches. As a matter of caution, most available data have been obtained in relatively standard conditions, e.g., on the surface before and after the dive, but, as far as we know, little or no data is available on what happens during the dive under hyperbaric conditions.
Aims of the project
1) To gather basic experimental data related to the physiology of human diving, with particular emphasis to NO handling and oxidative stress.
2) Assessment of intrinsic risk of underwater activities by recording personal and environmental parameters of the dive itself (individual and anthropometric data, behavioral questionnaire and clinical history, electronic recording of time, depth, temperature).
3) To build a database enabling to design a further project investigating approaches in the prevention and cure of DCI, as well as risk stratification in leisure and professional diving.
Have free diving a metabolism like other sports ?
What is the expenditure of a free diver ?
Which nutrients needs free diving ?
I'm trying to answer to these questions
