Hockey players on a road trip, soldiers at the battlefront and rural trauma patients could all benefit from a NASA ultrasound technique developed for astronauts on the International Space Station, doctors said on Tuesday.
The technique involves portable ultrasound machines, which are becoming increasingly common diagnostic tools, and a NASA training regimen that teaches medical novices the basics of an operation in a matter of hours or even minutes.
Station astronauts get two hours of training, six months before their trip to the orbiting outpost, where long-duration space flight raises the possibility of injury or illness, said Dr. Scott Dulchavsky, a surgeon at Henry Ford Hospital who works with astronauts on the ultrasound program.
Once aboard the station, the astronauts practice using the ultrasound machine, scanning fellow expedition members with a wand while a medical doctor on the ground guides them through the procedure, with the help of a video link.
So far, the ultrasound technique has only been used for practice in space, Dulchavsky said at a briefing, but if needed to examine an ailing astronaut, the Earth-based doctor would make a diagnosis based on the video image.
Useful for future Mars flight
“The images are of excellent diagnostic quality,” Dulchavsky said. “We could use them to exclude a whole variety of conditions that might occur going to Mars or on a long-duration space flight.”
Ultrasound technology, which uses sound waves to look inside the body, is most familiarly used to examine pregnant women for signs of fetal problems. It is also used in the treatment of ailments ranging from gallbladder disease to kidney stones -- and Dulchavsky said this list could expand to include broken bones, abdominal trauma and some infections.
Dulchavsky applied the NASA technique to members of the Detroit Redwings National Hockey League team, where a portable ultrasound device in the locker room allowed quick checks of on-ice injuries, according to team physician Dr. David Collon.
It also permits fast decision-making when the team goes on the road, Collon said. He cited the case of Redwing Derian Hatcher’s shoulder injury.
A portable ultrasound exam, monitored by hospital experts, was able to rule out a rotator cuff injury -- which could have been serious enough to require surgery -- and diagnose a more minor injury that needed only time to heal, Collon said.
Dr. Stephen Smith, a surgeon at Kansas University Medical Center in Wichita, said he used the NASA technique on trauma cases in rural areas to get data even before the patient was transported to a hospital.
“This will also have broad applications in military settings and in fact during the recent war with Iraq, ultrasound machines were out there on the frontlines with forward surgical units,” Smith said.
