Now in Space

One of the oldest international journals on astronautics, Acta Astronautica (Q1 in Space Engineering, WoS) has published an article with the results of skeletal muscle condition assessment by electromyagram signal in Russian cosmonauts who work on the International Space Station (ISS) for a long time.

The co-author of this work is Professor Alexander Meigal. The work was made possible due to the cooperation between the Institute of Medical and Biological Problems (Moscow), the Keldysh Institute of Applied Mathematics (Moscow) and PetrSU Laboratory of New Methods for Physiological Research, headed by Professor Meigal.

This work is the continuation of the Mars500 project, in which I also participated as an electromyography expert. Superficial, i.e. noninvasive electromyography, seems to be a very promising tool for assessing the condition of skeletal muscles of astronauts, because muscles lose strength and speed of contraction, as well as endurance, rather quickly, even with exercising. The idea, initiated in 2006 by our colleagues from Applied Physics Department of the University of Eastern Finland (Kuopio), that nonlinear electromyogram parameters, such as fractal dimension, entropy and recurrence, carry valuable, though hidden, information about muscle condition, turned out to be correct and in demand in parkinsonism diagnostics. We have published more than 15 joint papers on this topic. Nonlinear electromyogram parameters didn't let us down in the present study either, showing that organization of neuromuscular activity in astronauts under conditions of prolonged space flight changes seriously. In perspective, this will make it possible to quickly assess muscle condition without resorting, if possible, to histochemical procedures,

- Alexander Yurievich Meigal.