Research
Every claim on this site links to the paper behind it. Each record carries its full citation, its permanent identifiers, and a plain-language account of what the study found.
Publications
Physical, physiological and psychological effects of 100 days in an undersea habitat with a combination of dry and wet diving: Monitoring Project NEPTUNE 100
What happens to a human body held at 1.6 atmospheres for a hundred consecutive days? This paper reports the physiological and psychological data from the record-setting habitat stay at Jules' Undersea Lodge in 2023. It is the first sustained-pressure dataset of its length on a single subject.
Record 01USF faculty page- Role
- First author
- Authors
- Dituri J, Giger M, Figueredo J, Spelsberg S
- Journal
- IHA Journal of Therapeutic Sciences
- Published
- 2024 · 1(1)
- Type
- Journal article
- Subjects
- 1
- Field
- Extreme environments
Verified · USF faculty pageSource →
Return to Diving and Hyperbarics Post-COVID-19
COVID-19 left lasting questions for divers: lung scarring, cardiac inflammation, impaired gas exchange. When is it safe to go back in the water, and under what conditions? This paper reviews the return-to-dive criteria after SARS-CoV-2 infection, covering both recreational and professional diving alongside hyperbaric oxygen therapy considerations.
Record 02USF faculty page- Role
- First author
- Authors
- Dituri J, Carpenter E, Ebersole C, Ebersole D, Radtke R, Ardon A, Schwaiger-Kemp E, Sriaroon C, Taylor S
- Journal
- IHA Journal of Therapeutic Sciences
- Published
- 2024 · 1(1)
- Type
- Journal article
- Field
- Diving physiology
Verified · USF faculty pageSource →
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy as a Treatment for Gadolinium Deposition Disease
Gadolinium-based contrast agents used in MRI can deposit in tissue and cause lasting symptoms. This paper explores whether hyperbaric oxygen therapy can help clear or mitigate gadolinium deposition disease. The mechanism is plausible but the evidence base is early.
Record 03USF faculty page- Role
- Co-author, 4 of 4
- Authors
- Scriven V, Taylor S, Dyson J, Dituri J
- Journal
- IHA Journal of Therapeutic Sciences
- Published
- 2024 · 1(1)
- Type
- Journal article
- Field
- Hyperbaric medicine
Verified · USF faculty pageSource →
The final frontier: what can we learn from surviving 100 days under the sea?
A narrative and data summary of the hundred-day undersea mission, written for the sports medicine community. The question it poses to that audience: what does prolonged exposure to elevated ambient pressure teach us about human adaptation in extreme environments, and what carries over to altitude, spaceflight, and endurance sport?
Record 04USF faculty page- Role
- Co-author, 5 of 5
- Authors
- Solana N, Giger M, Figueredo J, Spelsberg S, Dituri J
- Journal
- Aspetar Sports Medicine Journal
- Published
- 2024 · 13(TT34) · 638-645
- Type
- Journal article
- Field
- Extreme environments
Verified · USF faculty pageSource →
The Art and Science of Hyperbaric Medicine
A textbook covering the principles and clinical practice of hyperbaric medicine from the engineering and physiological side. Co-authored with Jason Sonners. At 358 pages it is a full reference rather than a primer, written for practitioners entering the field or expanding an existing practice.
Record 05Publisher- Role
- Co-author, 1 of 2
- Authors
- Dituri J, Sonners J
- Journal
- NOW Publishing
- Published
- 2024 · 1-358
- Type
- Textbook
- Field
- Hyperbaric medicine
Verified · PublisherSource →
Electronic Life Support Control and Biometric Monitoring for Space Suits
A space suit and a diving rig solve the same problem: keep a person alive inside a sealed volume, in an environment that will kill them if it fails. This chapter carries life-support control and biometric monitoring approaches out of undersea systems and into spacecraft and extraterrestrial habitat design.
Record 06Crossref- Role
- First author
- Authors
- Dituri J, Juergensen K, Decker M
- Journal
- Handbook of Life Support Systems for Spacecraft and Extraterrestrial Habitats (Springer)
- Published
- 2020 · 1-29
- Type
- Book chapter
- Field
- Extreme environments
- DOI
- 10.1007/978-3-319-09575-2_217-1
Verified · CrossrefSource →
Real-time heart rate variability analysis as a means of hypercapnia detection
Carbon dioxide builds up silently in a closed-circuit diver, and by the time symptoms arrive it can be too late. This study asked whether the heartbeat itself gives earlier warning. In fifteen subjects breathing progressively higher CO2, the beat-to-beat pattern grew measurably more erratic before any symptoms appeared, and returned to baseline on clean air, a signal in under two minutes. It establishes that the signal exists. It does not establish that a wearable using it would hold up in cold water, under exertion, with a working diver's task loading.
Record 07PMID 31509906- Role
- First author
- Authors
- Dituri J, Siddiqi F, Frisina R
- Journal
- Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine
- Published
- 2019 · 46(4) · 503-507
- Type
- Peer-reviewed study
- Subjects
- 15
- Field
- Diving physiology
- DOI
- 10.22462/06.08.2019.12
Verified · PubMedSource →
Maladies Specific to Technical and Rebreather Divers
Technical divers and rebreather divers face failure modes that open-circuit recreational divers do not: hypercapnia from scrubber failure, hyperoxia from wrong-gas switches, hypoxia from loop volume loss, and isobaric counter-diffusion from helium transitions. This chapter catalogs those maladies and their field recognition.
Record 08Publisher- Role
- Co-author, 2 of 3
- Authors
- Renaldo C, Dituri J, O’Connell B
- Journal
- Hyperbaric Medical Practice, 4th Edition (BEST Publishing)
- Published
- 2017
- Type
- Book chapter
- Field
- Diving physiology
Verified · PublisherSource →
Emergency Management of Stricken Divers in Remote Areas
A diver gets hit far from a chamber and far from a hospital. What do you do with what you have? This chapter covers field management of decompression illness and barotrauma when evacuation is hours or days away, including in-water recompression protocols and improvised oxygen delivery.
Record 09Publisher- Role
- First author
- Authors
- Dituri J, Renaldo C
- Journal
- Hyperbaric Medical Practice, 4th Edition (BEST Publishing)
- Published
- 2017 · 975-993
- Type
- Book chapter
- Field
- Decompression
Verified · PublisherSource →
Ocean Exploration: Living in the Deep Sea
A chapter in the standard hyperbaric medicine reference, covering the physiology, engineering, and operational reality of extended human presence in deep-ocean habitats. The thread that connects saturation diving, undersea laboratories, and the hundred-day mission starts here.
Record 10Publisher- Role
- Co-author, 4 of 4
- Authors
- Whelan H, Leighton T, Annis H, Dituri J
- Journal
- Hyperbaric Medical Practice, 4th Edition (BEST Publishing)
- Published
- 2017 · 1107-1133
- Type
- Book chapter
- Field
- Extreme environments
Verified · PublisherSource →
Submarine Rescue Diving and Hyperbaric Medicine
When a submarine is disabled on the bottom, the rescue diver works at the intersection of every pressure physiology problem at once: depth, time, gas mix, decompression obligation, and a casualty who may already be injured. This chapter covers the medical and engineering framework for that scenario.
Record 11Publisher- Role
- First author
- Authors
- Dituri J, Whelan H
- Journal
- Hyperbaric Medical Practice, 4th Edition (BEST Publishing)
- Published
- 2017 · 1117-1149
- Type
- Book chapter
- Field
- Extreme environments
Verified · PublisherSource →
Ketogenic Diet and Ketogenic Supplementation for Central Nervous System Oxygen Toxicity
The companion chapter to the 2014 feasibility study. Where that paper tested whether divers could hold ketosis during real dives, this chapter reviews the mechanism: how a ketogenic state may raise the seizure threshold against central nervous system oxygen toxicity, and what the animal and human evidence says so far.
Record 12Publisher- Role
- Co-author, 5 of 6
- Authors
- Poff AM, Annis HA, Whelan HT, Ari C, Dituri J, D’Agostino D
- Journal
- Hyperbaric Medical Practice, 4th Edition (BEST Publishing)
- Published
- 2017 · 997-1014
- Type
- Book chapter
- Field
- Diving physiology
Verified · PublisherSource →
Echocardiographic evaluation of intracardiac venous gas emboli following in-water recompression
A diver gets decompression sickness far from any chamber. Do you put them back in the water, or give them oxygen at the surface? This randomized trial used heart ultrasound to count gas bubbles after a deliberately provocative dive. In-water recompression cut the bubble load by 99.7 percent; surface oxygen by 90.1 percent. In a group this size the difference did not reach statistical significance, but it supports in-water recompression as a genuine emergency option when no chamber can be reached.
Record 13PMID 27265987- Role
- First author
- Authors
- Dituri J, Sadler R, Siddiqi F, Sadler C, Javeed N, Annis H, Whelan H
- Journal
- Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine
- Published
- 2016 · 43(2) · 103-112
- Type
- Randomized controlled trial
- Field
- Decompression
Verified · PubMedSource →
Ketogenic diet for high partial pressure oxygen diving
Breathing oxygen at high pressure can trigger seizures. Ketogenic diets reduce seizures in epilepsy, so could divers tolerate one during real operations? Three experienced rebreather divers in Hawaii held ketosis through normal diving profiles with no seizures, no signs of oxygen toxicity, and no interference with the mission. Three subjects is a feasibility study. It shows the approach is testable. It does not show that it works.
Record 14PMID 25109086- Role
- Co-author, 8 of 10
- Authors
- Valadao JM, Vigilante JA, DiGeorge NW, O’Connor SE, Bear A, Kenyon J, Annis H, Dituri J, Dituri AE, Whelan HT
- Journal
- Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine
- Published
- 2014 · 41(4) · 331-335
- Type
- Feasibility study
- Subjects
- 3
- Field
- Diving physiology
Verified · PubMedSource →
Take Me Back Down: The Best “Over the Counter” Remedy for DCIs
A short argument, published in the Marine Technology Society Journal, for in-water recompression as a field-available treatment for decompression illness. The title is the thesis: when no chamber is reachable, the ocean itself is the chamber.
Record 15Publisher- Role
- Sole author
- Authors
- Dituri J
- Journal
- Marine Technology Society Journal
- Published
- 2013 · 47(6) · 80
- Type
- Journal article
- Field
- Decompression
Verified · PublisherSource →
Could the U.S. Navy benefit from technical diving techniques?
An abstract presented at the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society meeting, asking whether the equipment and gas-management practices developed by civilian technical divers could improve Navy diving operations. The question was pointed: Navy diving gear had not changed substantially in decades while the civilian technical community had moved ahead.
Record 16USF faculty page- Role
- First author
- Authors
- Dituri J, Parsley K, Hamilton R Jr, Whelan H
- Journal
- Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine
- Published
- 2008 · 35(4)
- Type
- Conference abstract
- Field
- Diving physiology
Verified · USF faculty pageSource →
Lightweight, faster decompression and portable alternative to US Navy mixed gas diving
An abstract presented at the UHMS meeting, proposing that closed-circuit rebreather technology could give Navy divers lighter equipment, shorter decompression obligations, and greater operational range than the standard open-circuit rig. The proposal came from operational experience: the author had run both systems in the fleet.
Record 17USF faculty page- Role
- First author
- Authors
- Dituri J, Parsley K, Whelan H
- Journal
- Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine
- Published
- 2007 · 34(4) · 255
- Type
- Conference abstract
- Field
- Decompression
Verified · USF faculty pageSource →
Remotely Operated Vehicle Use Within Shipyards
The earliest entry here, and the origin of the thread. Send a machine to do underwater inspection in a shipyard instead of sending a diver. Every question that follows, how much risk a human body should absorb and when a machine should absorb it instead, starts about here.
Record 18Crossref- Role
- Sole author
- Authors
- Dituri J
- Journal
- Journal of Ship Production
- Published
- 2003 · 19(4) · 205-206
- Type
- Journal article
- Field
- Extreme environments
- DOI
- 10.5957/jsp.2003.19.4.205
Verified · CrossrefSource →
Rebreathers and Their Uses
A conference paper presented at Oceans 2001, the annual MTS/IEEE meeting. It surveys closed-circuit rebreather technology for the ocean engineering audience: how the devices work, where they outperform open-circuit scuba, and what the failure modes are.
Record 19USF faculty page- Role
- Sole author
- Authors
- Dituri J
- Journal
- Oceans 2001 MTS/IEEE Conference and Exhibition
- Published
- 2001
- Type
- Conference paper
- Field
- Extreme environments
Verified · USF faculty pageSource →
Heliox for Treatment of Air or Nitrox Induced Decompression Illness
The earliest medical publication in this library. It proposes using heliox, a helium-oxygen breathing mix, as a treatment gas for decompression illness caused by air or nitrox diving. The argument rests on helium's faster diffusion and lower narcotic potency compared to nitrogen.
Record 20USF faculty page- Role
- Sole author
- Authors
- Dituri J
- Journal
- IBUM Journal
- Published
- 1998 · 2-4
- Type
- Journal article
- Field
- Decompression
Verified · USF faculty pageSource →
Research with Joe
Universities, manufacturers, and independent product and device testing. Joe designs and runs studies on human performance under pressure, and will tell you plainly when a study cannot answer the question you are asking.
- Role
- Named investigator, not an author
- Group
- USF HBOT for Veterans with TBI Collaborative Group
- Design
- Randomized controlled trial
- Intervention
- Hyperbaric oxygen at 2.0 ATA, chronic TBI symptoms
- Subjects
- 420
- Regulatory
- FDA IND/IDE #172640 · USF IRB #6819
Protocol in Trials 2026;27(1):352 Registration →