title: Instrumentation for assessment of tremor, skin vibrations, and cardiovascular variables in MIR space missions.
abstract: A versatile and simple to use biomedical instrumentation for noninvasive examinations of cosmonauts at the Russian MIR space station was developed. It consists of a comfortable sensor jacket to assess signals from the body surface, a precision hand dynamometer to produce muscular and cardiovascular loads, and a small interactive microprocessor unit that controls the examination and stores measurement data. The sensor jacket includes highly sensitive piezo-resistive accelerometers, pulse sensors, an ECG system, and a skin-mountable mechanical vibrator. The functionality of this instrumentation was evaluated during long-term space flights and also proved very useful in laboratory and clinical studies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, Karl Franzens University of Graz, Austria.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Gallasch
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Rafolt
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Moser
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hindinger
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Eder
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wiesspeiner
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kenner
mesh_terms: D002320:Cardiovascular Physiological Phenomena; D004581:Electronics / Q000295:instrumentation; D004867:Equipment Design; D006801:Humans; D008838:Microcomputers; D008991:Monitoring, Physiologic / Q000295:instrumentation; D012426:Russia; D012879:Skin Physiological Phenomena; D013026:Space Flight / Q000295:instrumentation*; D014202:Tremor / Q000503:physiopathology*