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Modeling human orthostatic responses on the Moon and on Mars

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Abstract

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.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the study participants for their dedication, Wolfram Sies and Stefan Moestl for constructing the parabolic flight rack and for technical support, and the NOVESPACE staff for the outstanding support during flight experiments. Moreover, we thank the German Aerospace Center (DLR) for providing the flight opportunities during the 1st and 2nd Joint European Partial-g Parabolic Flights. This work was performed with the support of the grants 50WB1155 and 50WB1255 of the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy and with a “Young Fellows” grant of the German Society of Aerospace Medicine (DGLRM).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of General Surgery, University of Witten/Herdecke, HELIOS Hospitals Wuppertal, Wuppertal, Germany

    Paula Beck & Hubert Zirngibl

  2. Department of Space Physiology, Institute of Aerospace Medicine, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Linder Höhe, 51147, Cologne, Germany

    Jens Tank, Peter Gauger, Luis E. J. Beck, Jens Jordan & Ulrich Limper

  3. Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, Merheim Medical Center, Hospitals of Cologne, University of Witten/Herdecke, Cologne, Germany

    Ulrich Limper

Authors
  1. Paula Beck
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  2. Jens Tank
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  3. Peter Gauger
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  4. Luis E. J. Beck
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  5. Hubert Zirngibl
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  7. Ulrich Limper
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jens Jordan.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest related to this work.

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Beck, P., Tank, J., Gauger, P. et al. Modeling human orthostatic responses on the Moon and on Mars. Clin Auton Res 28, 325–332 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10286-018-0527-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10286-018-0527-x

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