ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Physiol.
Sec. Environmental, Aviation and Space Physiology
This article is part of the Research TopicInnovations in Tools and Methods for Life Sciences Research in SpaceView all 6 articles
Evaluation of the left ventricle contractility during and after 6 months on the ISS using a speckle tracking modality
Provisionally accepted
- 1Unité de Médecine et Physiologie Spatiales (UMPS-CERCOM), Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Trousseau de Tours, Tours, France
- 2Universite Paris-Pantheon-Assas, Paris, France
- 3University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Canada
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ABSTRACT Purpose: Cardiac contractility can be evaluated during ultrasound evaluations using speckle tracking to map the motion of myocardium during the cardiac cycle. The purpose of the current study was to use this method to evaluate cardiac contractility in astronauts before, during, and after six months of spaceflight on the International Space Station. Methods: Speckle tracking data were recorded from ten astronauts (1F) preflight (PRE), on flight day 150 (FD150) and approximately four days after returning to Earth (R4). A 2D apical view video of the left ventricle was captured at each time point for the evaluation of three measures of cardiac contractility: the mean displacement of speckles, the product of mean displacement and the number of speckles tracked, and the size of the area with speckles showing the greatest displacement. Results: A trend was found for mean speckle displacement to be affected by spaceflight and recovery (p=0.052) with displacement potentially lower in seven of the ten astronauts on FD150. The product of speckle displacement and number of speckles was significantly lower inflight compared to R4 (p=0.021). The area with the highest displacement was significantly reduced with spaceflight compared to PRE (p=0.017). For all variables, values on R4 were not different from PRE. Conclusion: Results indicate a mild reduction in cardiac contractility with spaceflight. All parameters returned quickly to preflight values by R4, suggesting that these changes are related to a reduction in physical activity and/or fluid blood volume rather than cellular remodeling of the myocardium. (245 word)
Keywords: contractility, Left ventricle, spaceflight, speckle tracking, ultrasound
Received: 05 Sep 2025; Accepted: 15 Jan 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 ARBEILLE, Zuj, Vincent, Greaves and Hughson. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Philippe L ARBEILLE
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