injuries poisoning
Decompression Sickness
Diagnosis of Decompression Sickness
Clinical evaluation Diagnosis is clinical. CT and MRI may be helpful to rule out other disorders that cause similar symptoms (eg, herniated intervertebral disk, ischemic stroke, central nervous system hemorrhage). Although these studies sometimes show brain or spinal cord abnormalities due to decompression sickness, their sensitivity for decompression sickness is low, and treatment should usually begin based on clinical suspicion. Arterial Gas Embolism can have similar manifestations (for a comparison of features, see table For dysbaric osteonecrosis, skeletal x-rays may show joint degeneration, which cannot be distinguished from that caused by other joint disorders; MRI is usually diagnostic. If decompression sickness is suspected, begin recompression immediately, without delays for diagnostic studies. 