[Complex profile of the reflex diving response].

Breath-holding coupled with face cooling triggers a set of the reflex cardiovascular responses, defined as a diving reflex. The major reflex responses include a decrease in heart rate and peripheral vasoconstriction with an increase of arterial pressure to evoke central blood pooling with preferential provision of the brain and heart perfusion. Due to high individual variability and situational dependence the individual course of the reflex response is hardly predictable. Heart rhythm disturbances are the major, sometimes fatal complications of the response. This review is an outline of causing factors, circumstances, mechanisms and the effects of the diving reflex and their practical implications, including risk factors of the critical arrhythmias occurred in diving.