Modeling human orthostatic responses on the Moon and on Mars.

PURPOSE: Since manned missions to the Moon and Mars are planned, we conducted active standing tests with lunar, Martian, terrestrial, and 1.8 loads of inertial resistance (+Gz) modeled through defined parabolic flight maneuvers. We hypothesized that the cardiovascular response to active standing is proportional to the +Gz load. METHODS: During partial-+Gz parabolic flights, 14 healthy test subjects performed active stand-up maneuvers under 1 +Gz, lunar (0.16 +Gz), Martian (0.38 +Gz), and hyper inertial resistance (1.8 +Gz) while heart rate and finger blood pressure were continuously monitored. We quantified amplitudes and timing of orthostatic response immediately following standing up. RESULTS: The maximum early heart rate increase was 21 (SD ± 10) bpm with lunar, 23 (± 11) bpm with Martian, 34 (± 17) bpm with terrestrial +Gz, and 40 (± 11) bpm hyper +Gz. The time to maximum heart rate increased gradually with increasing loads of inertial resistance. The transient blood pressure reduction was most pronounced with hyper +Gz but did not differ significantly between lunar and Martian +Gz. The mean arterial pressure nadir was reached significantly later with Martian and lunar compared to 1 +Gz. Paradoxically, the time for blood pressure to recover was shortest with terrestrial +Gz. CONCLUSION: While load of inertial resistance directly affects the magnitude of the transient blood pressure reduction and heart rate response to active standing, blood pressure stabilization is most rapidly attained during terrestrial +Gz. The observation might suggest that the human cardiovascular system is tuned to cope with orthostatic stress on earth.

Upright cardiac output measurements in the transition to weightlessness during parabolic flights.

OBJECTIVE: Aims of this study were: 1) to determine cardiac output by inert gas rebreathing (CO(reb)) during transition into 0 Gz in the standing position; and 2) to compare impedance cardiography (ICG) and pulse contour method (PCM) with CO(reb) as a reference method. METHODS: We measured baseline CO(reb) and heart rate (HR) on the ground, and CO(reb), CO(pcm), CO(icg), and HR in standing and supine positions in the transition to weightlessness in six subjects. We conducted repeated measures ANOVA, Bland and Altman analysis, and analysis of percentage error of each data set. RESULTS: CO(reb) rose from 5.03 +/- 0.7 upright ground control to 11.45 +/- 3.6 L x min(-1) in 0 Gz. HR and stroke volume (SV) rose from 83 +/- 14 to 113 +/- 19 bpm and from 61 +/- 6 to 99 +/- 18 ml, respectively. Mean CO(reb), CO(pcm), and CO(icg) across all conditions were 10.45 +/- 3.04, 7.42 +/- 1.71, and 6.57 +/- 2.46 L x min(-1), respectively. Overall Bland and Altman analysis showed poor agreement for CO(pcm) and CO(icg) compared to CO(reb). DISCUSSION: Large bias for both comparisons indicated that both PCM and ICG underestimate the true CO value. Paired CO values of individual subjects showed a better correlation between methods and a broad bias range, indicating a preponderant role for large between-subjects variability. Repeated CO(reb) determinations in 1 Cz (i.e., when the cardiovascular system is in a steady state) should be used for calibration of the PCM and of ICG data. PCM and ICG can then be used to track CO dynamics during rapid changes of acceleration profiles.