Space Technology Detects, Treats Heart Disease
ASA's research on
the cardiovascular system is leading to many breakthrough discoveries,
testing procedures and treatments of heart disease—the number-one
killer of American men and women. About 60 million Americans have high
blood pressure, which, if left untreated, can lead to heart attacks, strokes
and other medical problems.
Astronauts who spend extended periods in space often experience weakening of their hearts and blood vessels. Whether researching ways to keep astronauts healthy in space or transferring aerospace technologies to industry, America's space program has helped revolutionize the practice of medicine. NASA is working with the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, dozens of hospitals, researchers and private companies. These collaborations have resulted in successful new programs to diagnose and treat heart disease.
A few of today's space-derived improvements include blood pressure monitors, self-adjusting pacemakers, electrocardiographs, exercise equipment and ultrasound images. Many are less painful, less costly and less traumatic to patients. The technology of tomorrow will include microwave surgery, tissue replacement, heart pumps, low radiation imaging and fetal imaging.
In Your Doctor's Office Today
Advanced Pacemaker—An implanted device developed from a NASA two-way communications technology senses irregular heartbeats and automatically delivers an electrical stimulus to get the heart back on track. This allows doctors to fine-tune the pacemaker from outside the body to better regulate heart rate in keeping with the patient's lifestyle.
Blood Flow Modeling—The same technology used to study how air flows over aircraft at ultrahigh speeds has been applied to study the flow of blood in the heart. Understanding blood flow will help in the design of artificial heart valves, artificial hearts and heart pumps and may even help researchers design these devices so that damage to red blood cells is reduced. The knowledge gained may also lead to a reduction in the frequency of heart attacks by uncovering ways to prevent the formation of artery-clogging clots.
Automatic Blood Analyzer—This small device developed by NASA allows doctors to quickly perform 80 to 100 different chemical blood tests from a single drop of blood in 5 minutes.
Exercise Equipment—NASA electrode tech-nology, developed to monitor the heart rate of astronauts in space, has led to exercise equipment, also used in gyms and rehabilitation centers, that continually monitors the user's heart rate and sets the machine's pace according to physician or trainer instructions.
Tomorrow's Technology
Gender-Based Study of the Heart—NASA and the Health Enhancement Research Organization (HERO) are studying how heart disease is different in men and women. When the study is completed, it will be reviewed by the American Heart Association and may result in new diagnosis and treatment procedures specific to women.
Controlling Blood Pressure—NASA has been studying how and why astronauts in space experience irregularities in their blood pressure and whether the body can "reset" its own blood pressure control by pressing on certain points in the body. Someday patients with unstable or dangerous blood pressure may be able to "reset" their own bodies' responses.
Monitoring Vital Signs—In the future, when doctors need to examine a patient's vital signs—heart rate, respiratory rate, temperature and oxygen level in the blood—they will use a small probe that easily fits inside the ear and quickly displays data on a laptop computer. NASA soon will be using this sensor technology to monitor crew vital signs during spacewalks and Space Shuttle launch and reentry.
Conducting Physical Exams Remotely—The Telemedicine Instrumentation Pack (TIP) allowed the crew on Space Shuttle mission STS-89 to conduct physical exams and monitor one another's heart, lung and bowel sounds and other physical conditions. On Earth, the portable unit TIP can be used by people, with limited training, to consult with medical specialists in other locations and to bring health care to people in remote areas.
Sending Medical Data Over NASA's Internet Lines—Working with the Cleveland Clinic, NASA is experimenting with transmitting digital echocardiogram video images over NASA's Research and Education Network, an Internet-based system. Echocardiography uses ultrasound to produce a motion picture of the heart in action. The clear image ultrasound helps detect unseen heart valve leaks and other heart problems. This technology was developed to image astronauts' hearts aboard the International Space Station.
Fetal Monitoring—NASA researchers working with surgeons at the University of California at San Francisco are perfecting a tiny, wireless, implantable fetal sensor that will make postoperative monitoring and care less difficult after surgery while the fetus is still in the womb. The sensor continuously transmits vital fetal health data through delivery.
Cardiac Imaging—Technology behind a device to monitor astronauts' hearts has led industry to develop a camera that images the heart six times faster than conventional devices, thus exposing patients to much lower doses of radiation. This is especially important to children and infants with heart conditions, because doctors will usually not subject them to procedures involving radiation. The camera makes imaging of these tiny hearts possible, thus possibly saving lives with a significant reduction in risk associated with radiation.
Computer Measurement of Coronary Artery Disease—NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, in collaboration with the University of Southern California and with funding from NASA and the National Institutes of Health, is a pioneer in the development of computer image processing techniques to accurately measure coronary artery blockage from x-ray angiograms. These techniques can detect very small changes over time in the coronary arteries and improves the ability of scientists to monitor clinical trials to detect the effect of drugs, diet and therapeutic procedures on heart disease.
Computer Measurement of Carotid Artery Disease—Computer methods developed and used for very high-precision measurement of carotid artery wall thickness from ultrasound images in a number of clinical trials and epidemiological studies at the University of Southern California and elsewhere have the potential to assist physicians in predicting an individual's risk of heart attack. This could become an important screening tool for coronary artery disease. This ultrasound method can detect very short-term changes in carotid wall thickness and has the advantage of using noninvasive ultrasound imaging that poses no risk to the patient.
Treating Heart Disease With Microwaves—In the future, microwaves and millimeterwaves will be used to treat certain forms of life-threatening irregular heartbeats and to remove lesions from the walls of blocked arteries. Currently used on a limited basis in special heart disease cases, tiny catheters heat diseased tissue with microwave-frequency waves and melt blood vessel lesions, reducing the risk of recurring blockage caused by artery damage from conventional treatments.
Heart Pumps From Aerospace Applications—A heart pump, developed from Space Shuttle engine pump technologies for use in surgery to temporarily assist the heart's own pumping ability, is being further developed by the Cleveland Clinic and NASA as an implantable, artificial heart pump for patients recovering from heart surgery or awaiting a heart transplant. The initial pump, the Ventricular Assist Device, was developed by NASA and Baylor College of Medicine researchers, including renowned heart surgeon Michael E. DeBakey. NASA's technology increases the pump's efficiency and thereby reduces damage to the blood cells during the pumping process.
Designing Heart Surgery Drugs—The microgravity of space allows space researchers to grow higher quality crystal proteins in the three-dimensional shapes necessary to develop drugs to counteract a disease-causing bacteria, virus or defective protein. Factor D crystals successfully grown during Space Shuttle mission STS-50 have led scientists at NASA and the University of Alabama at Birmingham to develop a drug that may aid recovering open heart surgery patients by inhibiting the human body's inflammatory responses to open heart surgery. Factor D is an active amino acid that is part of the alternative pathway that serves as complementary activation to inhibit the body's adverse reaction to the surgery. Designed to prevent immune system overreaction, the promising drug is scheduled to begin human clinical testing this year.
Tissue Engineering in Space—In a collaboration between the University of Alabama at Huntsville and the University of South Carolina, scientists have flown experiments on the Space Shuttle to engineer and grow tissue that may someday act as living patches. This would revolutionize the way medical science treats damaged heart muscle and blood vessels. In the future, the International Space Station may prove to be a unique tissue "factory" that may prolong and improve the lives of heart patients on Earth.
For more information, contact Terri Hudkins at NASA Headquarters.
Call (202) 358-1977, Fax: (202) 358-4331. Please mention you read about
it in Innovation.
Physician checks a patient's advanced
Trilogy pacemaker.
