Abstract
A majority of astronauts experience symptoms of headache, vomiting, nausea, lethargy, and gastric discomfort during the first few hours or days after entering a microgravity environment. It has been hypothesised that some of these symtoms are related to the development of benign intracranial hypertension as a result of the cephalic fluid shifts and relative venous congestion that occur in microgravity. This hypothesis is tested here using a mathematical model of lumped-parameter type that embeds the intracranial system in whole-body physiology. In addition to considering microgravity environments, this model is used to examine the response of intracranial pressures to head-down tilt (HDT), a ground-based experimental procedure often used to simulate the cardiovascular effects of microgravity. Predicted pressures in these simulations include those in the cerebral vasculature, ventricular and extra-ventricular cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), and the brain tissue extracellular fluid. Various cardiovascular stimuli associated with microgravity, including changes in arterial pressure, central venous pressure, and blood colloid osmotic pressure, are considered both individually and in concert. Small alterations of the blood-brain barrier in space due to factors such as gravitational unloading and increased exposure to radiation are also allowed. Simulation results predict that in a healthy individual the upward fluid shifts and changes in central venous pressure in microgravitycannot, by themselves, produce a large elevation in ICP so long as the blood-brain barrier remains intact. Indeed, in this case the simulations suggest that ICP in microgravity is significantly less than that in long-term HDT, and may even be less than that in the supine position on Earth. However, simulations predict that ICP can increase significantly if, combined with a drop in blood colloid osmotic pressure, there is even a slight reduction in the integrity of the blood-brain barrier. These results suggest that in some otherwise healthy individuals, microgravity environments may elevate ICP to levels associated with benign intracranial hypertension, producing symptoms that can adversely affect crew performance.
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Lakin, W.D., Stevens, S.A. (2008). Modelling the Response of Intracranial Pressure to Microgravity Environments. In: Hosking, R.J., Venturino, E. (eds) Aspects of Mathematical Modelling. Mathematics and Biosciences in Interaction. Birkhäuser Basel. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-7643-8591-0_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-7643-8591-0_11
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