Original articles   

The Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness 2001 December;41(4):486-90

Copyright © 2002 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Cardiological monitoring of sailors via offshore Internet connection

Luger T. J., Giner R., Lorenzi. H.

From the Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine * Information Technology Department University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria

Background. Sailing is becom­ing increas­ing­ly pop­u­lar as a ­form of hol­i­day rec­re­a­tion. The pur­pose of the ­present ­study was to pro­file the ­heart ­rate char­ac­ter­is­tics of non-pro­fes­sion­al ­crew mem­bers on a Mediterranean sail­boat ­trip. Additionally, the prac­ti­cabil­ity of trans­fer­ring elec­tron­ic ­data via the Internet ­while sail­ing off­shore was ­also stud­ied.
Methods. Seven ­healthy ­male non-pro­fes­sion­al ­crew mem­bers respon­sible for steer­ing and nav­i­gat­ing the ­boat dur­ing the obser­va­tion peri­od ­were stud­ied ­using con­tin­u­ous elec­tro­car­di­o­graph­ic record­ing (Holter). Manually meas­ured ­blood pres­sure, ­side ­effects and sail­ing ­data ­were ­taped ­half-hour­ly.
Results. While sail­ing we ­observed ­that the ­heart ­rate ­increased typ­i­cal­ly ­into the 120-170 ­beats/min ­range, ­mean arte­ri­al pres­sure ­remained ­stable ­between 80 – 90 mmHg. Heart ­rate chang­es and the inci­dence of supra­ven­tric­u­lar arrhyth­mi­as cor­re­lat­ed ­with activ­ity on ­board, ­boat ­speed and ­wind veloc­ity. No sub­ject ­showed ven­tric­u­lar arrhyth­mi­as dur­ing sail­ing. The min­i­mal ­blood pres­sure chang­es cor­re­lat­ed ­only ­with activ­ity on ­board.
Conclusions. All ­these ­results indi­cate ­that sail­boat­ing on vaca­tion, ­even in a non-pro­fes­sion­al stat­us, ­does not pro­mote dis­ease-rel­e­vant chang­es in ­heart ­rhythm on ­trips in ­mild to mod­er­ate ­seas. Additionally, we ­were ­able to dem­on­strate ­that the ­online trans­fer of elec­tron­ic ­data via the Internet ­from a sail­boat off­shore is pos­sible, ­easy and inex­pen­sive.