{"id":88149,"date":"2025-07-24T08:19:18","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T08:19:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/88149\/"},"modified":"2025-07-24T08:19:18","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T08:19:18","slug":"how-seeing-astronauts-in-space-pants-helped-a-ut-arlington-researcher-solve-a-heart-testing-problem-dallas-innovates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/88149\/","title":{"rendered":"How Seeing Astronauts in Space\u00a0Pants Helped a UT Arlington Researcher Solve a Heart Testing Problem \u00bb Dallas Innovates"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Michael Nelson, associate professor, wears the lower body negative-pressure pants at UTA’s Clinical Imaging Research Center [Photo: UTA]<\/p>\n

Heart stress tests conducted inside MRI machines have a hidden challenge: when patients lie flat, their hearts appear to function better than they actually do\u2014making it harder for doctors to detect signs of disease
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Michael Nelson, a kinesiology researcher at the University of Texas at Arlington, saw a solution in an unlikely place\u2014a photo of astronauts floating in space, wearing gear built to mimic gravity\u2019s pull on the body.<\/p>\n

The pants they wore\u2014designed to simulate standing conditions in microgravity\u2014sparked an idea. Nelson realized the same concept could help clinicians test heart function more accurately inside an MRI machine.<\/p>\n

Nelson\u2019s solution, now patent-pending, could help doctors more accurately assess heart function without invasive procedures or bulky equipment.<\/p>\n

How the pants work<\/p>\n

Cardiac MRI stress tests are typically done while a patient lies flat. But without gravity pulling blood down toward the legs, more blood flows back to the heart. That increases stroke volume, the amount of blood pumped per beat, and could make the heart appear to function better than it does.<\/p>\n

Nelson and his team developed lower body negative-pressure pants that simulate the effects of standing up while the patient remains in the MRI. That lets clinicians to see how the heart performs under more realistic stress conditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve completely transformed the way we look at exercise cardiac MRI,\u201d said Nelson, associate professor of kinesiology at UTA and director of both the Clinical Imaging Research Center and the Center for Healthy Living and Longevity. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn my opinion, the recent developments we\u2019ve made should become the new standard. You shouldn\u2019t be doing exercise cardiac MRI without lower body negative-pressure pants.\u201d<\/p>\n

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UTA researcher Michael Nelson [Photo: UTA]<\/p>\n

Avoiding invasive procedures<\/p>\n

The pants are part of a broader push by Nelson\u2019s team to advance MRI-based cardiac testing.<\/p>\n

In a recent study published in the American Journal of Physiology<\/a>, the team showed that MRI can be used to measure venous oxygen levels, an indicator of how well the body extracts oxygen from blood, without inserting a catheter.<\/p>\n

Previously, doctors needed to insert a catheter into the inferior vena cava, the body\u2019s largest vein, to get this data. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe new MRI technique avoids that invasive step\u2014reducing risk for patients while still providing the same level of accuracy and reliability,\u201d said Richard Thompson, a professor at the University of Alberta and senior author of the study.<\/p>\n

Working towards a new standard for exercise MRI<\/p>\n

By combining venous oxygen data with cardiac output, the amount of blood the heart pumps per minute, Nelson\u2019s team can calculate how much oxygen the body is using during exercise. UTA said that\u2019s a significant metric for predicting illness or risk of death.<\/p>\n

Taken together, the advancements lay the groundwork for a new generation of cardiac testing that is noninvasive, repeatable, and entirely MRI-based. In the past, researchers relied on stationary bikes, oxygen masks, metabolic carts, and separate imaging steps.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur initial proof-of-concept data clearly highlights the strength and promise of this approach,\u201d said Brandon Hathorn, a Ph.D. student in Nelson\u2019s Applied Physiology and Advanced Imaging Laboratory and lead author of a recently published article in the European Heart Journal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Research in Motion: Understanding exercise intolerance<\/p>\n

The work is supported by UT Arlington\u2019s Clinical Imaging Research Center, a $6.2 million facility that opened in November 2024. It features a 3-Tesla MRI machine with a 70-centimeter bore, large enough for exercise studies.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s great about MRI is that it\u2019s completely safe\u2014we could do one of these MRI stress tests every day, or every month,\u201d Mark Haykowsky, a former UTA professor who is now at the University of Alberta and is a senior investigator on the project, said in a statement. \u201cWe\u2019ve eliminated a lot of the risks since it\u2019s noninvasive and there\u2019s no ionizing radiation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The research is focused on understanding why some people struggle with physical activity\u2014whether in clinical settings or daily life, UTA said.<\/p>\n

Poor exercise capacity is not just a clinical measure. It affects day-to-day life. Nelson said even simple tasks like walking to the mailbox or vacuuming can become exhausting for patients with limited function.<\/p>\n

\u201cImagine feeling like you\u2019re working at your absolute maximum most of the day?\u201d Nelson said. \u201cBeing able to noninvasively identify specific mechanisms limiting someone\u2019s capacity, whether it is the heart, the muscles, or both, will allow for targeted treatments to improve quality of life and longevity.\u201d<\/p>\n

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