PHYSIOLOGICAL EXPERIMENTS ON EXTREME HIGH ALTITUDE

• Published in: Aviation, space, and environmental medicine space, and environmental medicine, 2012-03, Vol.83 (3), p.251a-251a
• Main Authors: Ospina-Obando, A M, Bernal, C, Sanchez, L
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0095-6562

INTRODUCTION: Since the Colombian Air Force has one of the newest and high performance hypobaric chamber and considering the importance of doing new researches on Aerospace Medicine basics; the aim of this project is to generate a series of studies on high altitude physiology performed in the Colombian Air Force Aerospace Medical Center (CEMAE) in order to develop investigative skills and knowledge. The principal objective of the first study was to recognize the Armstrong limit and describe the ebullism phenomenon in human corporal fluids exposed to hypobaric high altitude reaching at 1000 FL. METHODS: The study was performed in two phases: the first one using non biological homologous fluids that had the same composition in terms of electrolytes. And a second one using biological samples such as human blood, plasma, urine and saliva. A flight profile was designed in order to standardize the accent rate and all flight procedures, having a fast climb rate until 630FL and then a lower climb rate to 1000FL so that the changes in the samples could be observed. RESULTS: It was found that after suffering ebullism the red blood cells observed by microscope presented a roleaux phenomenon, but, no erythrocyte damage was evidence, it was also seen as well, a very important conglomeration of nitrates and calcium in urine samples. Also was recognized that at 630FL in some cases the biological samples fluids showed ebullism but not in a constant way. Though, more research is needed.