[Changes in human monosynaptic H-reflex during altitude decompression].
Test subjects exposed to altitude decompression without preliminary denitrogenization showed in 65-75% of cases stability or reduction of the amplitude of the H-response of a leg with subsequent painful sensations and in increase of the amplitude of the H-response in the other leg as long as they were raised to an altitude of 11,000 m. When bends developed in a leg the amplitude of the H-response in that leg decreased and in the opposite leg increased. During the descent and disappearance of painful sensations changes in the amplitude of the H-response were just the opposite. It is assumed that a decrease of the amplitude of the H-response during altitude decompression was associated with oxygen deficiency of nerve afferents and an increase--with the descending activating supraspinal effect.