Relation between flight hours and peripheral nervous conduction velocity
Garcia Alcon, J.L.; Moreno Vazquez, J.M.; Mena Arias, P.; Martinez Martinez, M.; Campillo Alvarez, J.E.
Aviation Space and Environmental Medicine 61(4): 353-355
1990
ISSN/ISBN: 0095-6562 PMID: 2339972 Document Number: 364267
The peripheral nervous system is highly sensitive to variations in the internal medium. A neurophysiological study (peripheral nervous conduction velocity) and an enzymatic study (catalase and glutathione-peroxidase) were performed in both instructor and student pilots. Pilots do not show the age-dependent decrease in the peripheral sensory nervous conduction velocity observed in non-pilot subject controls. The sensory conduction velocity (SCV) was significantly (p less than 0.01) increased when hours of flight experience increased, yielding a positive correlation (r = 0.6461; p = 0.0016). A significant (p less than 0.01) increase in the erythrocite catalase and glutathione-peroxidase activities were observed in pilots vs. controls. The present data suggest that a chronically increased oxygen consumption could be the reason for the increase in peripheral nervous conduction velocity observed in pilots.