Lengthy space jaunts can affect sight

London: Brain scans of Nasa astronauts who have returned to Earth after more than a month in space have revealed potentially serious abnormalities that could jeopardise the future of long-term space missions.

Doctors examined 27 astronauts who had flown long-duration missions with the US space agency and found a pattern of deformities in their eyeballs, optic nerves and pituitary glands that remains unexplained.

The problems are similar to those caused by intracranial hypertension, a rare medical condition that occurs when pressure inside the skull rises and presses on the brain and the backs of the eyes.

Medical crews at Nasa and four other major space agencies in Europe, Russia, Japan and Canada are now investigating the issue.

The agencies are screening astronauts before, during and after space missions to learn more about when the problem arises and the likely cause.

They were alerted to the issue when astronauts who had flown on the space shuttle and International Space Station reported changes to their eyesight, with some seeing worse and others better than they had before. Brain scans revealed that seven of the 27 astronauts had a flattening of the back of one or both eyes.

By making the eyeball shorter, this made the astronauts more long-sighted, which in some cases had the effect of reducing or correcting their short-sightedness.

Larry Kramer, who led the study at the University of Texas Health Science Centre in Houston, said the impact on astronauts' eyesight might become "a new limiting factor" to long-duration excursions into space. His results, published in the journal Radiology, suggested the abnormalities were worse and more frequent in astronauts who spent longer in weightless, or microgravity, conditions.

Ramifications

"There are major political, social and individual ramifications relative to this thought alone," Dr Kramer said.

"Consider the possible impact on proposed manned missions to Mars or even the concept of space tourism. Can risks be eventually mitigated? Can abnormalities detected be completely reversed? The next step is confirming the findings, defining causation and working towards a solution based on solid evidence."

Four of the astronauts had swelling around the optic nerve, which could affect the transmission of signals from the eye to the brain and, in the longer term, cause nerve fibres to die off. Three of the astronauts had slightly deformed pituitary glands, though this was not thought to be harmful.

All of the findings could be explained by a buildup of cerebrospinal fluid in the brain, Dr Kramer said, though it could take space agencies months or years to fully understand the effect.