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Astronaut vision may be impaired by spinal fluid changes: study

By AFP
29 November 2016   |   3:31 am
Astronauts may experience blurry vision and impaired eyesight after long space flights due to changes in spinal fluid that occur while in microgravity, researchers said Monday.
This handout picture released on November 22, 2016 by the ESA/NASA shows French astronaut Thomas Pesquet in the International Space Station ’s Cupola observatory, one of ESA’s contributions to the orbital outpost. This picture is the first picture Thomas Pesquet posted on social media, with the comment: “The International Space Station is amazing: better than in my best dreams. I wish everybody could get the chance to come up here!”. Russia's Soyuz spacecraft arrived at the International Space Station on November 19, 2016, carrying a European, a Russian and an American astronaut for a six-month mission at the orbiting outpost. ESA/NASA / AFP

This handout picture released on November 22, 2016 by the ESA/NASA shows French astronaut Thomas Pesquet in the International Space Station ’s Cupola observatory, one of ESA’s contributions to the orbital outpost. This picture is the first picture Thomas Pesquet posted on social media, with the comment: “The International Space Station is amazing: better than in my best dreams. I wish everybody could get the chance to come up here!”. Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft arrived at the International Space Station on November 19, 2016, carrying a European, a Russian and an American astronaut for a six-month mission at the orbiting outpost.<br />ESA/NASA / AFP

Astronauts may experience blurry vision and impaired eyesight after long space flights due to changes in spinal fluid that occur while in microgravity, researchers said Monday.

Nearly two-thirds of astronauts have reported problems with their eyes after spending months at the International Space Station, according to research presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).

According to lead researcher Noam Alperin, professor of radiology and biomedical engineering at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, “some of the astronauts had severe structural changes that were not fully reversible upon return to Earth.”

The problems includes flattening at the back of their eyeballs and inflamed optic nerves, which can lead to far-sightedness.

Researchers initially thought that the problems were due to changes in the way blood is distributed in the body in microgravity, with more fluid lingering around the head area than would be typical on Earth where gravity pulls it downward.

Alperin and colleagues studied before and after brain scans on seven astronauts who had spent multiple months at the orbiting space station, and compared them to nine astronauts who made short trips up and back aboard the US space shuttle, which was retired in 2011.

They found that long-duration astronauts had significantly more cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in the brain.

This fluid typically helps cushion the brain and spinal cord while circulating nutrients and removing waste materials.

On Earth, this spinal fluid system is designed to accommodate changes whether a person is sitting, standing or lying down. But in space, “the system is confused by the lack of the posture-related pressure changes,” Alperin said.

Long term space flyers also had “significantly increased post-flight flattening of their eyeballs and increased optic nerve protrusion,” said the findings.

Alperin said the research offers the first quantitative evidence cerebral spinal fluid plays a direct role in visual impairment syndrome.

NASA is currently studying ways to counteract these eye problems, as the US space agency works toward sending people on months or years-long missions to Mars by the 2030s.

Retired NASA astronaut Clayton Anderson said he did not experience any problems with vision after his five month stint in space in 2007.

“It appears — from additional NASA studies performed at Johnson Space Center in Houston — that I have a special protein sailing through my body, that does not allow this phenomenon to occur,” Anderson wrote on quora.com.

“Protein question still being researched, I believe,” he added on Twitter.

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