A TEST FOR VARIATIONS IN INDIVIDUAL SENSITIVITY TO HYPERBARIC-OXYGEN TOXICITY

It has been suggested that some individuals have above-average sensitivity to hyperbaric oxygen toxicity. An extensive human study completed at the Naval Experimental Diving Unit (NEDU) tested human tolerance to HBO and raised the possibility of assessing this hypothesis. In a group of 113 subjects given multiple exposures, some developed no symptoms of O-2 toxicity while others developed symptoms on several occasions. The subjects in this study received unequal numbers of exposures of different depths and durations however, and it was not obvious how to determine unusual sensitivity. To assess the influences of chance vs. differences in sensitivity on the outcome of this experimental series, we performed a Monte Carlo simulation in which the experimental design was duplicated and the sensitivity hypothesis was evaluated statistically. The number of subjects giving rise to any symptoms and the distribution of individuals having symptoms on multiple occasions were evaluated. The simulation showed that the NEDU results were not unusual: nearly one quarter of the time the observed pattern of multiple symptoms could have been expected due to chance alone. The power of this simulation would have permitted detection of sensitivity factors 10 times (or greater) normal in 20% of the subjects at least half of the time.