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Objective evaluation of changes in left ventricular and atrial volumes during parabolic flight using real-time three-dimensional echocardiography

¹Dipartimento di Bioingegneria, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy; ²Noninvasive Cardiac Imaging Laboratory, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois; ³Université Paris Sud, Unité Propre de Recherche de l'Enseignement Supérieur Équipe d'Accueil 2397, Centre Chirurgical Marie-Lannelongue, Physiologie, Le Plessis Robinson, France; and ⁴Université Bordeaux 2, Unité Propre de Recherche de l'Enseignement Supérieur Équipe d'Accueil 518, Médecine Aérospatiale, Bordeaux, France

Submitted 5 January 2006 ; accepted in final form 31 March 2006

We tested the feasibility of real-time three-dimensional (3D) echocardiographic (RT3DE) imaging to measure left heart volumes at different gravity during parabolic flight and studied the effects of lower body negative pressure (LBNP) as a countermeasure. Weightlessness-related changes in cardiac function have been previously studied during spaceflights using both 2D and 3D echocardiography. Several technical factors, such as inability to provide real-time analysis and the need for laborious endocardial definition, have limited its usefulness. RT3DE imaging overcomes these limitations by acquiring real-time pyramidal data sets encompassing the entire ventricle. RT3DE data sets were obtained (Philips 7500, X3) during breath hold in 16 unmedicated normal subjects in upright standing position at different gravity phases during parabolic flight (normogravity, 1 G_z; hypergravity, 1.8 G_z; microgravity, 0 G_z), with LBNP applied (–50 mmHg) at 0 G_z in selected parabolas. RT3DE imaging during parabolic flight was feasible in 14 of 16 subjects. Data were analyzed (Tomtec) to quantify left ventricular (LV) and atrial (LA) volumes at end diastole and end systole, which significantly decreased at 1.8 G_z and increased at 0 G_z. While ejection fraction did not change with gravity, stroke volume was reduced by 16% at 1.8 G_z and increased by 20% at 0 G_z, but it was not significantly different from 1 G_z values with LBNP. RT3DE during parabolic flight is feasible and provides the basis for accurate quantification of LV and LA volume changes with gravity. As LBNP counteracted the increase of LV and LA volumes caused by changes in venous return, it may be effectively used for preventing cardiac dilatation during 0 G_z.

weightlessness; countermeasures; image processing; cardiac function

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