Lindholm Hyperbaric & Diving Medicine Research Lab
About The Lab
Pathophysiology in the aquatic environment, from diving to maritime conditions.
Our Current Projects:
Water Safety and Drowning Prevention
Projects include studies on drownings in migrants, water pollution, loss of consciousness in freedivers / spearfishers and medical questions related to SCUBA diving and/or freediving.
Recent publications include:
- Lussier A, Lindholm P. Rate of Aquatic and Maritime Drowning Deaths After US-Mexico Border Wall Height Increase. JAMA. 2024 Mar 26;331(12):1059-1060. doi: 10.1001/jama.2024.1275. PMID: 38451518
- Yu E, Valdivia-Valdivia JM, Silva F, Lindholm P. Breath-Hold Diving Injuries — A Primer for Medical Providers. Curr Sports Med Rep. 2024 May 1;23(5):199-206. doi: 10.1249/JSR.0000000000001168. PMID: 38709946
- Letter to editor: Sadler C, Alvarez-Villela M, Van Hoesen K, Grover I, Lang M, Neuman T, Lindholm P. Diving after COVID-19: an update to fitness to dive assessment and medical guidance. Diving Hyperb Med. 2022 Mar 31;52(1):66-67. doi: 10.28920/dhm52.1.66-67. PMID: 35313377
Immersion Pulmonary Edema and Barotrauma of Descent
This project study swimming induced pulmonary edema, immersion pulmonary edema and barotrauma of descent in divers, swimmers and freedivers. One of the aims is to further understand the pathophysiological mechanisms of Freediving Induced Pulmonary Symptoms (FIPS) and how they relate to pulmonary edema and/or pulmonary barotrauma.
Currently supported by a grant from Divers Alert Network (DAN) “A new risk factor for pulmonary edema during diving”.
Recent publications include:
- Silva, F, Gouin E, Lindholm P. Mucosal petechiae and hemorrhage in pulmonary barotrauma in breath-hold diving: direct observation of a suspected pathophysiologic mechanism. American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine in press AJRCCM2024.
- Lussier A, Yu E, Lindholm P. Is There An Inflammatory Component Present In Immersion Pulmonary Edema? Evidence From Increased Fractional Exhaled Nitric Oxide(FeNO). ATS San Diego 2024
- Lindholm P, Lang MA, Tillmans F, eds. Barotrauma and SIPE in Freediving. Proceedings of the San Diego Center of Excellence in Diving/Divers Alert Network 2023 Oct 27-28 Workshop. San Diego, CA: Divers Alert Network; 2024.
- Sebreros BA, Wisniewski P, Lindholm P, Boswell GE, Volk CG. Incidence of Respiratory Pathogens in Naval Special Warfare Sea, Air, and Land Team Candidates With Swimming-Induced Pulmonary Edema. Chest. 2022 Nov 23:S0012-3692(22)04193-9. doi: 10.1016/j.chest.2022.11.023. Online ahead of print. PMID: 36427538.
- Volk C, Spiro J, Boswell G, Lindholm P, Schwartz J, Wilson Z, Burger S, and Tripp M. Incidence and Impact of Swimming Induced Pulmonary Edema (SIPE) on Navy SEAL Candidates. Chest. 2020 Nov 24:S0012-3692(20)35301-0. doi: 10.1016/j.chest.2020.11.019. Online ahead of print. PMID: 33245874.
Clinical Trials in HBOT
Hyperbaric oxygen treatment has 15 indications that are generally accepted and reimbursed indications in most countries. These projects relate to emerging /new indications and the efforts to validate new diagnoses via clinical trials. Current /recent projects include ulcerative colitis flares and covid-19.
Hyperbaric Oxygen for Hospitalized UC Flares (PI is P.Dulai at Northwestern).
Dr Lindholm serves as co-investigator and part of the steering committee for a phase 3 multi-center, double-blind, sham-controlled trial for hyperbaric oxygen to treat ulcerative colitis patients hospitalized for moderate to severe flares.
Recent publications include:
- Kjellberg A, Douglas J, Pawlik MT, Kraus M, Oscarsson N, Zheng X, Bergman P, Frånberg O, Kowalski JH, Nyren SP, Silvanius M, Skold M, Catrina SB, Rodriguez-Wallberg KA, Lindholm P. Randomised, controlled, open label, multicentre clinical trial to explore safety and efficacy of hyperbaric oxygen for preventing ICU admission, morbidity and mortality in adult patients with COVID-19. BMJ Open. 2021 Jul 5;11(7):e046738. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2020-046738. PubMed PMID: 34226219; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC8260306.
Big Data in Diving Medicine
We are collecting and annotating data from 50+ years of diving experiments with human volunteers from the USA, Great Britain and France, to enable studies using AI/machine learning.
Recent publications include:
- Lindholm P, Blogg SL, Azarang A, Le D, Lance R, Tillmans F, Brett K, Bouak F, Dugrenout E, Gardette B, Medson K, Richard Moon R, Papadopoulou V An echo from the past; building a Doppler repository for big data in diving research. Abstract, Pacific Symposium on Biocomputing (PSB) Kona Hawaii 2023
- Azarang* A, Le* DQ, Hoang A, Blogg SL, Dayton PA, Lance RM, Natoli M, Gatrell A, Tillmans F, Moon RE, Lindholm P, Papadopoulou V. Deep Learning-Based Venous Gas Emboli Grade Classification in Doppler Ultrasound Audio Recordings” IEEE Trans Biomed Eng. 2022 Oct 27;PP. doi: 10.1109/TBME.2022.3217711. Online ahead of print. PMID: 36301781.
- Papadopoulou V, Lindholm P. An echo from the past: Building a Doppler repository for big data in diving research. Undersea Hyperb Med. 2021 First-Quarter;48(1):57-58. PMID: 33648034