NEWS: 2nd Aug 2006
 
Surrey BOC employees get on their bikes

Surrey employees get on their bikes to help pioneering medical research

Guildford, UK, 2 August 2006 - Forty Guildford based employees of BOC undertook a series of cardiopulmonary exercise tests (including a gruelling cycle ride) to help a team of Everest bound doctors understand how well brains, lungs and metabolisms function under extreme conditions.

The testing was the first stage of a pioneering medical project ?Xtreme Everest? co-ordinated by the UCL Centre for Aviation, Space and Extreme Environment Medicine (CASE) and supported with a Inspire Award research grant from BOC Medical.

Cardiopulmonary testing determines VO2 max values, (the maximum amount of oxygen the body is capable of absorbing) and measures the efficiency of exercising subjects. This information can be used to understand more about how critically ill patients respond to very low levels of oxygen and develop new treatments. Low levels of oxygen in the blood of high altitude climbers is similar to that found in critically ill patients on breathing machines with severe heart and lung conditions, ?blue babies? and cystic fibrosis sufferers.

BOC clinical director, Dr Hubert Bland said: ?The testing at ?sea-level? is the first step in determining exactly how different individuals respond to low levels of oxygen.

?Being at the top of Everest starved of oxygen is not much different from being in intensive care and we know that many ICU patients suffer from a lack of oxygen utilisation.

?Through the Xtreme Everest project BOC and others in the medical community will develop a better understanding of why this is so and hope to be able to develop new treatments that will improve the life chances of the critically ill.?

Added Dr Bland: ?Besides being a lot of fun there are valuable lessons to be gathered from the ?cardio? testing and those taking part at Guildford felt they were making a valuable contribution to what is truly a pioneering project.?

The results from Guildford will be added to those from volunteers at University College London. In the next stage of the project a group of BOC ?trekkers? will join the Xtreme Everest team in the Himalayas for further medical tests. Xtreme Everest climbing leader and UCL CASE director, Dr Mike Grocott explained: ?The trek in the Himalayas involves a series of carefully controlled experiments with 208 volunteers being slowly exposed to hypoxia (shortage of oxygen) to see how their bodies respond.?

?The physiological and neurological tests undertaken in the Xtreme Everest field ?laboratories? will measure the body?s capacity to utilise oxygen ? how oxygen gets to tissues and different parts of the body including the lung and the brain.?

The Xtreme Everest project will culminate in spring 2007 with a team of UCL CASE doctors led by Dr Mike Grocott measuring blood oxygen levels and conducting other tests during their ascent of Everest.

Said Dr Grocott: ?The combined results from Everest and 1000 volunteers will help CASE and BOC attain a better understanding of disease processes so that new respiratory and cardiac treatments can be developed.?

Notes to editors

The BOC Inspire Award

The BOC Inspire Award invites applications for research projects that add to our understanding of how medical gases - such as oxygen, nitrogen, Heliox or nitrous oxide - can be used to treat a range of respiratory and other illnesses.

This is the first open invitation for research funding from BOC Medical and Xtreme Everest is one of the first recipients of an Inspire Award.

BOC Medical

BOC is a major exponent of medical research, supporting studies undertaken by the British Lung Foundation, sponsoring the chair of anaesthesia at Addenbrookes hospital, Cambridge, as well as managing a major trial of Heliox at St Mary?s hospital, Paddington in London.

BOC Medical plays an active role in developing oxygen therapy and other medical gases and delivery systems while helping to improve safety standards and respiratory knowledge.

As part of its commitment to patient care and the medical establishment BOC leads or supports a range of research programmes and clinical trials in addition to running clinical seminars on the use of medical gases for the relief of pain and respiratory problems. Over the past five years the organisation has spent more than ?10 million to fund studies and projects on respiratory diseases like lung cancer, asthma and COPD, with several other respiratory studies currently progressing with BOC sponsorship.

BOC

The BOC Group, the world-wide industrial and special gases, vacuum and abatement technologies and distribution services company, serves two million customers in more than 50 countries. It employs some 30,000 people and had total revenues of over ?4.6 billion in 2005. Further information about The BOC Group may be obtained on the Internet at www.boc.com.