Abstract
Objective: According to the reports of the medical-flight expert commissions, cardiovascular (CV) diseases in aviation personnel have a high prevalence. CV diseases and arterial hypertension are the cause of disqualification or professional disability of the air traffic controllers (ATC) in even greater percentage than among flying personnel. The purpose of our study is to assess the features of diurnal blood pressure (BP) in civilian ATC in the real life. Design and method: The study was conducted in the Moscow Center for Automated Air Traffic Management of Federal State Unitary Enterprise 'State Corporation for Air Traffic Management in the Russian Federation’; 55 ATC are randomly selected men aged between 20 and 55 years. All subjects were performed ABPM (BPLab, ’Petr Telegin’, Russia), holter ECG monitoring, psychological testing. ABPM was conducted during a working shift and a rest time. Part of the ATC were monitored again on the second rest day. Results: During working shifts the increase of average BP in 17 people (30.9%) was found. All the ATC have 24-h systolic and diastolic BP (SBP and DBP) of 140.2 ± 8 mmHg and of 82.5 ± 5 mmHg respectively; daytime SBP of 146.8 ± 8 mmHg; daytime DBP of 88.5 ± 6.3 mmHg; nighttime SBP of 131.2 ± 6.4 mmHg and nighttime DBP of 77.0 ± 7 mmHg. Rest time ABPM data were within the normal range: 24-h SBP of 118.2 ± 7.3 mmHg; 24-h DBP of 70.0 ± 6 mmHg; daytime SBP of 127.0 ± 6 mmHg; daytime DBP of 74,2 ± 4,1 mmHg; nighttime SBP of 112.0 ± 4.6 mmHg and nighttime DBP of 66.2 ± 5 mmHg.Conclusions: The diurnal BP profile of ATC can be significantly changed under the influence of external factors, in particular, during stressful situations, which are widely represented in the work of ATC. Possible reasons for the prevalence of CV diseases in the structure of morbidity of ATC may be features of professional activity namely a psychological stress. A high-stress environment affects the haemodynamics, which can be seen in the presented results.
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