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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 127 records · Page 7
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2006

Overview of AMS (CCSDS Asynchronous Message Service)

This viewgraph presentation gives an overview of the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) Asynchronous Message Service (AMS). The topics include: 1) Key Features; 2) A single AMS continuum; 3) The AMS Protocol Suite; 4) A multi-continuum venture; 5) Constraining transmissions; 6) Security; 7) Fault Tolerance; 8) Performance of Reference Implementation; 9) AMS vs Multicast (1); 10) AMS vs Multicast (2); 11) RAMS testing exercise; and 12) Results.

asynchronous↗
NASA NTRS1993

Muscle mitochondrial density after exhaustive exercise in dogs - Prolonged restricted activity and retraining

The effect of exhaustive treadmill exercise on mitochondrial density (MD) and ultrastructural changes in quadriceps femoris muscle was studied in 7 normal, healthy, male mongrel dogs before and after restricted activity (RA) and following a subsequent 2-month exercise retraining period. Mean time to exhaustion in the 2-month group decreased from 177 +/- 11 min before to 90 +/- 16 min after RA; retraining increased tolerance to 219 +/- 36 min above the pre-RA and 143 percent above the post-RA time. Post-RA exhaustion time in the 5-months group was 25 and 45 min. Muscle samples taken after RA showed abnormalities indicative of degeneration, which were reversed by retraining. Resting MD decreased from a control level of 27.8 percent to 14.7 percent and 16.3 percent, and was restored to 27.1 percent after retraining. Exhaustive exercise caused an increase in MD under control conditions and after RA, but not following retraining. Disruption of mitochondria after exercise was evident after 5-month confinement. Factors causing mitochondrial changes and eventually their disruption during exercise after restricted activity are not related as much to the state of fatigue as to the pre-exercise quality of the muscle modified by disease or training.

Nazar, K.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Effects Of Exercise During Prolonged Bed Rest

Report describes experiment to investigate effects of isotonic and isokinetic leg exercises in counteracting effects of bed rest upon physical and mental conditions of subjects. Data taken on capacity for work, endurance and strength, tolerance to sitting up, equilibrium, posture, gait, atrophy, mineralization and density of bones, endocrine analyses concerning vasoactivity and fluid and electrolyte balances, intermediary metabolism of muscles, mood, and performance.

Arnaud, S.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Temporal Changes in Astronauts’ Muscle and Cardiorespiratory Physiology Before, During and After Spaceflight

Background: NASA’s planned space exploration missions will require astronauts to safely perform extravehicular activity (EVA) and to safely egress vehicles in a variety of landing scenarios. Prolonged exposure to spaceflight can diminish tolerance for physical activity, decrease cardiovascular and sensorimotor function, and cause loss of bone mineral density, and reduced muscle mass and strength. Although exercise can mitigate these spaceflight-induced physiological decrements, little is known regarding the time-course of changes in muscle and aerobic performance during spaceflight. Furthermore, these exercise countermeasures are not fully protective. For example, maximal aerobic capacity (VO2pk), lower body muscle cross-sectional area, and strength decrease by about 10% to 15% after short- (~ 14 days) and long-duration (~ 6 months) missions on the International Space Station (ISS). Future space missions that are longer in duration and further from Earth will employ exploration vehicles that will have exercise hardware with less robust and more constrained exercise capabilities than of those available on the ISS. Thus, countermeasures will need to be optimized to protect crew health and performance on exploration-class missions that will last up to 3 years. This will require a more detailed understanding of the dynamic effects of spaceflight on human health and performance, and the ability of exercise to protect against this deconditioning, and the interaction of exercise with interrelated factors like nutrition, sleep, and environmental conditions. Methods: We will use standardized research and medical testing protocols previously validated in 1-G and 0-G to quantify the time course and the inter-individual variability of changes in physical performance, including cardiorespiratory fitness, and muscle strength, and endurance, before, during and after spaceflight missions lasting 2 months, 6 months, and 1 year. Additionally, we will use an extrapolation model to predict changes associated with 2–3-year exploration missions. Additionally, we will monitor in-flight exercise, nutrition, and sleep using in-flight assessment tools. Significance: Our testing protocols will provide valuable information for determining time course of change and the interindividual variability of spaceflight-induced deconditioning of aerobic capacity and muscle strength and endurance over the course of spaceflight missions up to and beyond 1 year. This information will be vital to assess whether humans can be physically ready for deep space exploration, such as on a mission to Mars, using current technology, or if additional mitigation strategies are necessary.

countermeasures↗
NASA NTRS2000

Autogenic-feedback training exercise is superior to promethazine for control of motion sickness symptoms

Motion sickness symptoms affect approximately 50% of the crew during space travel and are commonly treated with intramuscular injections of promethazine. The purpose of this paper is to compare the effectiveness of three treatments for motion sickness: intramuscular injections (i.m.) of promethazine, a physiological training method (autogenic-feedback training exercise [AFTE]), and a no-treatment control. An earlier study tested the effects of promethazine on cognitive and psychomotor performance and motion sickness tolerance in a rotating chair. For the present paper, motion sickness tolerance, symptom reports, and physiological responses of these subjects were compared to matched subjects selected from an existing database who received either AFTE or no treatment. Three groups of 11 men, between the ages of 33 and 40 years, were matched on the number of rotations tolerated during their initial rotating-chair motion sickness test. The motion sickness test procedures and the 7-day interval between tests were the same for all subjects. The drug group was tested under four treatment conditions: baseline (no injections), a 25 mg dose of promethazine, a 50 mg dose of promethazine, and a placebo of sterile saline. AFTE subjects were given four 30-minute AFTE sessions before their second, third, and fourth motion sickness tests (6 hours total). The no-treatment control subjects were only given the four rotating-chair tests. Motion sickness tolerance was significantly increased after 4 hours of AFTE when compared to either 25 mg (p < 0.00003) or 50 mg (p < 0.00001) of promethazine. The control and promethazine groups did not differ. AFTE subjects reported fewer or no symptoms at higher rotational velocities than subjects in the control or promethazine groups. The primary physiological effect of promethazine was an inhibition of skin conductance level. The AFTE group showed significantly less heart rate and skin conductance variability during motion sickness tests administered after training.

Clinical Trial↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Temporal Changes in Astronauts’ Muscle and Cardiorespiratory Physiology Before, During, and After Spaceflight

Background: NASA’s planned space exploration missions will require astronauts to safely perform extravehicular activity (EVA) and to safely egress vehicles in a variety of landing scenarios. Prolonged exposure to spaceflight can diminish tolerance for physical activity, decrease cardiovascular and sensorimotor function, cause loss of bone mineral density, as well as reduced muscle mass and strength. Although exercise can mitigate these spaceflight-induced physiological decrements, little is known regarding the time-course of changes in muscle and aerobic performance during spaceflight. Furthermore, these exercise countermeasures are not fully protective. For example, maximal aerobic capacity (VO2pk), lower body muscle cross-sectional area, and strength decrease by about 10% to 15% after short- (≈14 days) and long-duration (≈6 months) missions on the International Space Station (ISS). Future space missions longer in duration and further from Earth will employ exploration vehicles that will have exercise hardware with less robust and more constrained exercise capabilities than of those available on the ISS. Thus, countermeasures will need to be optimized to protect crew health and performance on exploration-class missions lasting up to 3 years. This requires a more detailed understanding of the dynamic effects of spaceflight on human health and performance, the ability of exercise to protect against this deconditioning, and the interaction of exercise with interrelated factors like nutrition, sleep, and environmental conditions. Methods: We will use standardized research and medical testing protocols previously validated in 1g and microgravity to quantify the time course and the inter-individual variability of changes in physical performance, including cardiorespiratory fitness and muscle strength and endurance, before, during, and after spaceflight missions lasting 2 months, 6 months, and 1 year. Additionally, we will use an extrapolation model to predict changes associated with multi-year exploration missions. Additionally, we will monitor in-flight exercise, nutrition, and sleep using in-flight assessment tools. Significance: Our testing protocols will provide valuable information for determining time course of change and the interindividual variability of spaceflight-induced deconditioning of aerobic capacity and muscle strength and endurance over the course of spaceflight missions up to and beyond 1 year. This information will be vital to assess whether humans can be physically ready for deep space exploration, such as on a mission to Mars, using current technology, or if additional mitigation strategies are necessary.

N Strock↗
NASA NTRS1983

On requirements for software fault tolerance for flight controls

The need for the application of software fault tolerance techniques in digital flight control systems is argued to follow from the requirements derivable from the safety constraints of such systems, requirements which can be stated in terms of minimum acceptable system reliability levels and, moreover, stated quantitatively. It is argued further that, while fault tolerance appears to be a viable mechanism in general, individual fault tolerance schemes need to be analyzed to ensure that they are adequate to the task and being properly utilized, that such analysis is essentially an exercise in software 'reliability' estimation involving software characteristics not currently included in software 'reliability' modeling (most especially, the degree of correlation of malfunctions among redundant, dissimilar software modules), and that, consequently, further research and studies in the characterization of software behavior and malfunctions is required.

Migneault, G. E.↗
NASA NTRS2020

Temporal Changes in Astronauts’ Muscle and Cardiorespiratory Physiology Pre-, In-, and Post-Spaceflight

NASA’s vision for future exploration missions depends on the ability to protect astronauts’ health and safety for performance of Extravehicular Activity (EVA), and to allow astronauts to safely egress from vehicles in a variety of landing scenarios (e.g. water landing upon return to Earth and undefined planetary/lunar landings). Prolonged exposure to spaceflight results in diminished tolerance to prolonged physical activity, decreased cardiac and sensorimotor function, and loss of bone mineral density, muscle mass, and muscle strength. For over 50 years exercise has been the primary countermeasure against these physiologic decrements during spaceflight, and while the resulting protection is adequate for ISS missions (i.e., Soyuz landing, microgravity EVAs), there is little information regarding time-course changes in muscle and aerobic performance. As spaceflight progresses towards longer exploration missions and vehicles with less robust exercise capabilities compared to ISS, countermeasures will need to be combined and optimized to protect crew health and performance across all organ systems over the course of exploration missions up to 3 years in duration. This will require a more detailed understanding of the dynamic effects of spaceflight on human performance. Thus, the focus of this study is quantifying decrements in physical performance over different mission durations, and to provide detailed information on the physiological rational for “why” and “when” observed changes in performance occur. The research proposed will temporally profile changes in astronauts’ cardiorespiratory fitness, muscle mass, strength, and endurance over spaceflight missions of 2 months, 6 months, and up to 1 year in duration. Additionally, an extrapolation model will provide predictions for changes associated with exploration missions 2-3 years in duration. To accomplish these objectives astronauts will be asked to participate in pre, in, post-flight measurement of muscle performance, muscle size, cardiorespiratory fitness and submaximal performance capabilities, as well as non-invasive assessment of cerebral and muscle oxygenation and perfusion (Table 1). Additionally, ambulatory and in-flight exercise, nutrition, and sleep will be monitored using a variety of commercial technologies and in-flight assessment tools. Significance: Our detailed testing protocol will provide valuable information for describing how and when spaceflight-induced muscle and aerobic based adaptations occur over the course of spaceflight missions up to and beyond 1 year. This information will be vital in the assessment as to whether humans can be physically ready for deep space exploration such as Mars missions with current technology, or if additional mitigation strategies are necessary.

Downs, M. E.↗
NASA NTRS1973

Evaluation of positive G sub Z tolerance following simulated weightlessness (bedrest)

The magnitude of physiologic changes which are known to occur in human subjects exposed to varying levels of + G sub Z acceleration following bed rest simulation of weightlessness was studied. Bed rest effects were documented by fluid and electrolyte balance studies, maximal exercise capability, 70 deg passive tilt and lower body negative pressure tests and the ability to endure randomly prescribed acceleration profiles of +2G sub Z, +3G sub Z, and +4G sub Z. Six healthy male volunteers were studied during two weeks of bed rest after adequate control observations, followed by two weeks of recovery, followed by a second two-week period of bed rest at which time an Air Force cutaway anti-G suit was used to determine its effectiveness as a countermeasure for observed cardiovascular changes during acceleration. Results showed uniform and significant changes in all measured parameters as a consequence of bed rest including a reduced ability to tolerate +G sub Z acceleration. The use of anti-G suits significantly improved subject tolerance to all G exposures and returned measured parameters such as heart rate and blood pressure towards or to pre-bed-rest (control) values in four of the six cases.

Jacobson, L. B.↗
NASA NTRS2008

Lower Body Negative Pressure Treadmill Exercise and Resistive Exercise Countermeasures Maintain Physiologic Function in Women during Simulated Microgravity

We hypothesized that supine LBNP treadmill exercise combined with Flywheel resistive exercise maintains upright physiologic responses following 60-days of head-down tilt (HDT) bed rest (BR). METHODS: 16 healthy women (age 25-40 years) underwent 60-days HDT (-6deg.) BR. Women were assigned to either a non-exercise control group (CON, n=8) or to an exercise group (EX, n=8). EX subjects performed a 40-min, variable intensity LBNP exercise protocol at foot-ward forces between 1.0-1.1 times body weight, followed by 10- min of resting LBNP 3-4 days/week. Resistive exercise of maximal concentric and eccentric supine leg press and heel raise exercises were performed using a flywheel ergometer 2-3 days/week. IRBs approved this study with informed/written consent. RESULTS: Post-BR VO2pk was not different in EX (-3.3+/-1.2%) but decreased significantly in CON (-21.2+/-2.1%), p< 0.05. Post-BR orthostatic tolerance time (mean se) decreased significantly less in EX (19.3+/-1.3 to 14.4+/-1.5 min) than in CON (17.5+/-0.1 to 9.1+/- 1.5 min), p=0.03. Post-BR muscle strength decreased significantly in CON, but was preserved in EX. Post-BR bone resorption was greater than pre-BR in both groups (p<0.05). Bone formation markers, were significantly elevated (p<0.05) in EX than in CON. CONCLUSIONS: Supine LBNP treadmill exercise along with flywheel resistive exercise maintains upright exercise capacity, orthostatic responses and muscle strength during 60-days HDT BR.

Macias, B. R.↗
NASA NTRS1999

Exercise Countermeasures for Bone Loss During Space Flight: A Method for the Study of Ground Reaction Forces and their Implications for Bone Strain

Effective countermeasures to prevent loss of bone mineral during long duration space flight remain elusive. Despite an exercise program on MIR flights, the data from LeBlanc et al. (1996) indicated that there was still a mean rate of loss of bone mineral density in the proximal femur of 1.58% per month (n=18, flight duration 4 - 14.4 months). The specific mechanisms regulating bone mass are not known, but most investigators agree that bone maintenance is largely dependent upon mechanical demand and the resultant local bone strains. A plausible hypothesis is that bone loss during space flight, such as that reported by LeBlanc et al. (1996), may result from failure to effectively load the skeleton in order to generate localized bone strains of sufficient magnitude to prevent disuse osteoporosis. A variety of methods have been proposed to simulate locomotor exercise in reduced gravity. In such simulations, and in an actual microgravity environment, a gravity replacement load (GRL) must always be added to return the exercising subject to the support surface and the resulting skeletal load is critically dependent upon the magnitude of the GRL. To our knowledge, GRLs during orbital flight have only been measured once (on STS 81) and it is likely that most or all prior treadmill exercise in space has used GRLs that were less than one body weight. McCrory (1997) has shown that subjects walking and running in simulated zero-G can tolerate GRLs of 1 if an appropriate harness is used. Several investigators have attempted to measure in vivo strains and forces in the bones of humans, but have faced ethical and technical limitations. The anteromedial aspect of the tibial midshaft has been a common site for the placement of strain gauges; one reason to measure strains in the anterior tibia is that this region is surgically accessible. Aamodt et al. (1997) were able to measure strains on the lateral surface of the proximal femur only because their experimental subjects were already scheduled for hip surgery. Lu et al. (1997) used an instrumented massive proximal femoral prosthesis along with electromyographic measurements to demonstrate that femoral forces depend on muscular activity. These analyses of in vivo bone mechanics are valuable. The invasive nature of the procedures involved, however, limits both the number of subjects and the number of strain gauge locations. Further, the results of these studies may be confounded by the inclusion of subjects with pathological conditions. Gross et al. (1992) measured strain at three locations on the equine third metacarpal and used those data to construct a computer model of the internal strain environment of the bone. An analogous placement of multiple gauges in living humans would be difficult and potentially hazardous because of the depth of soft tissue overlying the tibia and femur.

Peterman, M.↗
NASA NTRS2000

Bed Rest and Orthostatic-Hypotensive Intolerance

Orthostatic tolerance may be defined as the ability of humans to maintain cerebral perfusion and consciousness upon movement from a supine or sitting position to the upright posture; for example, subjects can stand suddenly or be tilted to the head-up body position. Similar but not identical physiological responses can be induced by positive G(sub Z) (head to foot) acceleration or exposure to lower body negative pressure (LBNP). The objective is to suddenly shift blood to the lower body to determine how effectively cardiovascular and neural-hormonal compensatory responses react to maintain blood pressure. In the most precise method for measuring tolerance, individuals would be stressed until they faint (syncope). However, the potential consequences and discomforts of such a test usually prohibit such a procedure so that few investigators actually induce syncope. In a more common approach, subjects are exposed to a given level of stress, for example, head-up tilt for 15 min, and any increases in heart rate or decreases in blood pressure are interpreted as indicators of progress toward syncope. Presumably, the greater the perturbation of heart rate and blood pressure, the closer to "tolerance," i.e., point of unconsciousness. Another more appropriate approach is to induce a progressively increasing hypotensive stress until pre-determined physiological responses or pre-syncopal symptoms appear. The physiological criteria may include a sudden drop in systolic blood pressure (greater than 25 mm/min), a sudden drop in heart rate (greater than 15 beats/min), or a systolic blood pressure less than 70 mmHg. The most common pre-syncopal symptoms include lightheadedness, stomach awareness or distress, feelings of warmth, tingly skin, and light to profuse sweating. Usually a combination of physiological responses and symptoms occurs such that, on different days, the tolerance time to the same orthostatic protocol is reproducible for a given individual. The assumption is that by taking subjects to near fainting, one can determine their tolerance. This latter pre-syncopal approach is better for estimating orthostatic or hypotensive tolerance than the former measurement of heart rate and blood pressure responses to a given stress. There is considerable variability in individual responses to orthostasis. For example, some subjects are "heart-rate responders" and have a pronounced cardiovascular response similar to that when performing moderately hard aerobic exercise, whereas others may experience pre-syncopal symptoms with very little increase in heart rate. Some individuals have a slow, gradual fall in blood pressure to orthostasis, and others have little change in blood pressure until a sudden precipitous fall in pressure occurs just prior to fainting. With both tilt and LBNP tests there is a low correlation between heart-rate or blood-pressure responses to a sub-tolerance stress as a measure of pre-syncopal limited orthostatic-hypotensive tolerance.

Schneider, Suzanne M.↗
NASA NTRS1997

Mechanisms of Cardiopulmonary Adaptation to Microgravity

Session TA1 includes short reports covering: (1) Indices of Baroreceptor Reflex Sensitivity: The Use in Rehabilitation Medicine and Space Cardiology; (2) +Gz and +Gx Tolerance of Healthy Persons of Non-Flying Trades at Primary Selection of the Centrifuge; (3) Effect of Dry Immersion on Calf Blood Supply During Sustained Contraction and Upright Exercise in Man; (4) Cardiovascular and Valsalva Responses during Parabolic flight; (5) An Analysis of the Cardiovascular Responses under Hyper- and Hypo-Gravity Environments using a Mathematical model; (6) Effect of Very Gradual Onset Rate +Gz Exposures on the Cardiovascular System; and (7) NASA Specialized Center of Research and Training (NSCORT) in Integrated Physiology: Mechanisms of Physiological Adaptations to Microgravity.

Source record↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Modified Autogenic Feedback Training Produces Effect on Motion Sickness

Motion sickness is a common physiological reaction to provocative motion and is characterized by a constellation of symptoms, including stomach awareness, nausea, emesis, pallor, sweating, hypersalivation, and fatigue. The emergence of these symptoms can pose a significant threat to safety, particularly in the context of aviation. Given its prevalence among aviators and its detrimental impact on performance, researchers have endeavored to identify effective countermeasures for motion sickness. Currently, many of the existing interventions are pharmacological in nature and while effective, they present a problem due to their associated adverse side effects. A modified two-hour version of Autogenic Feedback Training Exercise (AFTE) could be an effective countermeasure to motion sickness without adverse side effects. AFTE combines principles of autogenic therapy, biofeedback, and learning to teach individuals to control their own internal physiological reactions through a series of relaxation and arousal exercises. AFTE was administered over six days. On the first day, participants were exposed to provocative motion via a rotating chair test to collect baseline physiological data. AFTE sessions were conducted on four consecutive days and lasted approximately 30 minutes each session. Participants were exposed to the rotating chair again on the 6th day. Results: Participants (n = 16) were evaluated on the number of rotations experienced and cumulative minutes spun in the chair. Participants tended to ride longer (M = 21.0 min, SD = 16.56) and tolerated more rotations (M = 244.8 rotations, SD = 310.62) on their second rotating chair test compared to baseline (M = 14.0 min, SD = 9.35; M = 125.8 rotations, SD = 124.08; t(15) = 2.21, p = .02). A moderate effect size was recorded (Hedges’s g = 0.44). A modified two-hour version of the AFTE is effective at increasing tolerance of symptoms associated with motion sickness.

motion sickness↗
NASA NTRS2024

Transfer of NASA Technology to the DoD: Mitigating Motion Sickness with Autogenic Feedback Training Exercise

Motion sickness poses a significant safety risk, particularly in the context of aviation. Given its prevalence among aviators and its detrimental impact on performance, researchers have attempted to identify effective mitigation strategies for motion sickness. Currently, many of the existing interventions are pharmacological, and while effective, they present a problem due to their associated adverse side effects. The primary goals of the current research were 1) demonstrate the value of the application of Autogenic-Feedback Training Exercise (AFTE), a physiological training program developed by NASA to mitigate the impact of operational stressors such as motion sickness and spatial disorientation on human physiology and performance and 2) evaluate a new enhanced version of AFTE training software and demonstrate the ability to apply it remotely and train other personnel to administer it. AFTE combines principles of autogenic therapy, and biofeedback in training individuals to control their physiological reactions through a series of relaxation and arousal exercises. This study included twenty-six participants, 17 men and 9 women. On day 1 participants were tested in a rotating chair (pre-test) to determine their motion sickness tolerance (measured as minutes of rotation); days 2-5 consisted of four AFTE training sessions, each 30-min. in duration for a total of 2 hours; and on day 6 the participants were re-tested in the rotating chair. Results revealed a significant increase in motion sickness tolerance with AFTE on the post-test when compared to pre-test, participants had significantly lower symptom diagnostic scores post-test, and there was no significant gender effect. In addressing the first goal it was concluded that the modified 2-hour version of AFTE significantly improved motion sickness tolerance with participants experiencing fewer symptoms. A second goal of this research was to refine and transfer a NASA technology, software and methods for applications within DOD by training other personnel to administer AFTE. A comparison of NASA and NAMRU-D trainers on AFTE outcome for improving participants’ motion sickness tolerance revealed no significant difference indicating the successful transfer of methods to DOD. In addition, remote AFTE training of military aviators at distant sites was feasible. A third goal was to identify individual patterns of interoceptive abilities and related autonomic metrics able to predict stress response and training outcome. These data included measures of personality traits obtained from questionnaires and specific autonomic measures (e.g., heart rate variability) collected by NAMRU-D investigators. These results will be reported in a separate paper.

autonomic nervous system↗
NASA NTRS1990

Fault recovery characteristics of the fault tolerant multi-processor

The fault handling performance of the fault tolerant multiprocessor (FTMP) was investigated. Fault handling errors detected during fault injection experiments were characterized. In these fault injection experiments, the FTMP disabled a working unit instead of the faulted unit once every 500 faults, on the average. System design weaknesses allow active faults to exercise a part of the fault management software that handles byzantine or lying faults. It is pointed out that these weak areas in the FTMP's design increase the probability that, for any hardware fault, a good LRU (line replaceable unit) is mistakenly disabled by the fault management software. It is concluded that fault injection can help detect and analyze the behavior of a system in the ultra-reliable regime. Although fault injection testing cannot be exhaustive, it has been demonstrated that it provides a unique capability to unmask problems and to characterize the behavior of a fault-tolerant system.

Padilla, Peter A.↗
NASA NTRS2002

Effect of 3-Day Bed Rest on the Basal Sympathetic Activity and Responsiveness of this System to Physiological Stimuli In Athletes and Sedentary Subjects

The aims of this study were: (1) to examine the effect of three days of bed rest (BR) on basal plasma epinephrine [E] and norepinephrine [NE] and the catecholamine responses to various physiological stimuli, and (2) to find out whether previous physical activity modifies effects of BR. In the first series, 29 young men (11 sedentary students, 8 endurance and 10 strength trained athletes) were submitted to oral glucose tolerance test in supine position and to active orthostatic test before and after 3 days of BR. Plasma [E] and [NE] were measured after overnight fast (basal condition), at 60, 120 and 180 min after glucose ingestion (70 a), and at the 8th min of unsupported standing. In the second series, other 22 subjects (12 sedentary students, 10 endurance and 10 strength trained athletes) were submitted to 2 min cold pressor test (CPT) and exercise. Plasma E and NE were determined in the supine position after overnight fast and at 60th and 120th s of hand cooling. Then, after breakfast followed by 2-3 hour sitting, the subjects performed cycle ergometer exercise with workload increasing until volitional exhaustion. Plasma [E] and [NE] were determined at the end of each load. Plasma catecholamines were determined made radioenzymatically. After BR, basal plasma [NE] was decreased in endurance and strength athletes (p<0.01) but not in sedentary subjects. In neither group BR affected the basal [E]. Responses of both catecholamines to glucose load were diminished after BR in all three groups (p<0.05) but the effect was most pronounced in the endurance athletes. All subjects tolerated well 8-min standing although their heart rate response was increased after BR. Plasma catecholamine responses standing were not significantly affected by BR in either group but the plasma [NE] and [E] during standing were lowered after BR in endurance athletes (p<0.01). BR did not affect blood pressure and catecholamine responses to CPT. The pre- and post-exercise plasma catecholamines were similar before and after BR although the subjects achieved lower maximal loads after BR. In endurance athletes the threshold for plasma NA rise occurred at lower work intensity after than before BR (p<0.05).

Smorawinski, Jerzy↗