It is a place where basic science and clinical research come together with physiologists and medical doctors, finding ways to apply scientific discovery to human conditions. The chamber can operate over a range of pressures from six atmospheres to 100,000 feet above sea level. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is one of the uses of the chamber for patient care. This therapy increases oxygen to support wound healing. Diabetics, for example, often have circulatory disorders that prevent adequate levels of oxygen to support wound healing.
Studies show promising results in healing difficult or limb-threatening wounds.
In August 1995, the American Diabetes Association approved a three-year grant for the IEEM to continue hyperbaric therapy research on diabetic patients. Jeffrey A. Stone, DO, MPH, associate medical director of Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas' Hyperbaric Medicine Unit, believes that the study will confirm that patients receiving this therapy will have a higher rate of healing and limb salvage than those patients receiving standard wound care alone. The cardiopulmonary physiology laboratory researchers serve as regional and national consultants for exercise intolerance associated with shortness of breath. Dr. Levine, who directs the Autonomic Function Laboratory, has been awarded three grants from NASA to study how the circulation is controlled in the presence or absence of absolute gravity. This division's study of deconditioning when human subjects stay in bed for extended periods provides an important model for weightlessness.