The effects of hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) on blood viscosity and erythrocyte aggregation in diabetic patients

Abstract

There are only a few studies about hyperbaric oxygen’s effect on hemorheological parameters and their results showed an increase in blood viscosity and RBC aggregation both in vivo and in vitro. Some many other studies showed abnormal hemorheological parameters in diabetics and so, this would suggest more complications after HBO therapy however; reality is not consistent with this suggestion. Therefore, in this study, the effects of hyperbaric oxygen therapy on blood viscosity and erythrocyte aggregation have been investigated. After the approval of local ethical committee, 11 diabetic ulcer patients aged between 42 and 82 were taken to our study. 100% oxygen was applied at 2.4 ATA for two hours in three cycles of 25 minutes of oxygen- 5 minutes air break. Treatments were carried on five days a week. Blood that was collected before the initial HBO therapy was accepted to be control. Samples were also collected after the initial therapy and twentieth one to be evaluated. Corrected whole blood viscosity was measured using a cone/plate viscometer with a hematocrit of 45%. RBC aggregation was measured using a Myrenne aggregometer in both autologous plasma and dextran70 solution. Our results showed that there were no significant changes in corrected blood viscosity between the samples collected before and after the first and twentieth HBO treatments. Also RBC aggregation in both autologous plasma and dextran70 solution after the first and twentieth HBO treatments were not significantly different than the control samples. These results were in contrast with the previous experimental studies. The reason of these contradictory results may be caused by experimental method and HBO application differences and/or different reactions of humans and animals. Still, this topic needs further studies to clear such an important effect.