Characterizing Immersion Pulmonary Edema (IPE): A Comparative Study of Military and Recreational Divers

Sports Medicine - Open

Table 1 Subject and Diving Condition Characteristics

Variables	All (n = 57)	Military divers	Recreational divers	p
Variables	All (n = 57)	(n = 14, 25%)	(n = 43, 75%)	p
Characteristics of the patients
Age (25–75th percentile; or ± SD) years	45 (30–55)	26.5 (± 2.6)*	51.2 (± 7.5)	< 0.0001
Male, n (%)	40(70)	13(93)^a	27(63)	0.0163
Cardiovascular history, n (%)	13 (23)	1 (7)^a	12 (28)	0.0439
Immersion Pulmonary Edema (IPE) history, n (%)	12 (21)	3 (21)	9 (20)	0.0938
Dive Characteristics
Breath-hold diving, n (%)	14 (25)	1 (7)^a	13 (30)	0.0406
Open circuit diving, n (%)	33 (58)	3 (21)^a	30 (70)	0.007
Rebreather diving, n (%)	4 (7)	4 (29)^a	0 (0)	0.0001
Surface swimming, n (%)	6 (11)	6 (43)^a	0 (0)	< 0.0001
Intense physical effort, n (%)	23 (40)	12 (86)^a	11 (26)	< 0.0001

Concerning age, the Agostino & Pearson normality test indicated that the age distribution for the entire group of 47 divers is not normal (p = 0.029). Consequently, age values for the entire group of divers are presented as medians (25th to 75th percentile). However, for each of the two diver populations studied, the age distribution follows a normal pattern (p = 0.322 for military divers; p = 0.0989 for recreational civilian divers). In these cases, age values are displayed as means ± SD. Statistical significance was determined using the Mann Whitney test for unpaired data
^*If difference between groups was significant (p < 0.05)
For all other data, statistical significance was determined using the Chi-square and Fischer’ exact test
^aIf differences between groups were significant (p < 0.05)