title: Feasibility of real-time 3D echocardiography in weightlessness during parabolic flight.
abstract: Aim of the study was to test the feasibility of transthoracic real-time 3D (Philips) echocardiography (RT3D) during parabolic flight, to allow direct measurement of heart chambers volumes modifications during the parabola. One RT3D dataset corresponding to one cardiac cycle was acquired at each gravity phase (1 Gz, 1.8 Gz, 0 Gz, 1.8 Gz) during breath-hold in 8 unmedicated normal subjects (41 +/- 8 years old) in standing upright position. Preliminary results, obtained by semi-automatically tracing left ventricular (LV) and left atrial (LA) endocardial contours in multiple views (Tomtec), showed a significant (p<0.05) reduction, compared to 1 Gz, of LV and LA volumes with 1.8 Gz, and a significant increase with 0 Gz. Further analysis will focus on the right heart.
authors.affiliation: Biomedical Eng. Dept., Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy. caiani@biomed.polimi.it
authors.forename: E G
authors.initials: EG
authors.lastname: Caiani
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Sugeng
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Weinert
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Husson
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Bailliart
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Capderou
authors.forename: R M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Lang
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Vaida
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000337:Aerospace Medicine / Q000295:instrumentation; D019560:Echocardiography, Three-Dimensional; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D006112:Gravitation; D006325:Heart Atria / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D006352:Heart Ventricles / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D006801:Humans; D018471:Hypergravity; D008875:Middle Aged; D011187:Posture / Q000502:physiology; D013026:Space Flight / Q000295:instrumentation*; D014893:Weightlessness