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Spaceflight has adverse effects on the human body that pose health risks to astronauts spending extended time in space missions. For clinical monitoring of astronauts and for in-flight biomedical research, laboratory instruments must be available in the spaceflight environment. Currently, no instrument has been shown to be capable of generating a white blood cell (WBC) count and differential during spaceflight to our knowledge, although this is a medical requirement of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). We evaluated a compact hematology analyzer for compatibility with a zero-gravity environment. We performed analyses in reduced-gravity during parabolic flight. Herein, we describe our engineering evaluation and report the reduced-gravity validation data we collected. The hematology analyzer we tested met the basic requirements for use in spaceflight and should be capable of accurately measuring WBC parameters aboard the International Space Station. * ISS : International Space Station; WBC : white blood cell; NASA : National Aeronautics and Space Administration; CCD : charge-coupled device; EDTA : ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid; CBC : complete blood cell; CLIA : Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments; IR&D : Internal Research and Development

How can humans live and work in space? Ask one of NASA's biostatisticians. With the International Space Station, the prospect of a return to the moon and – who knows?– perhaps a manned voyage to Mars, ever-longer space missions must be planned for. Robert Ploutz-Snyder describes some of NASA's work to reduce the risk to astronauts.

The purpose of this study was to identify quadriceps femoris strength thresholds below which performance on ambulatory tasks is compromised. A second purpose was to evaluate whether self-reported functioning matches evaluated performance of the activities. Subjects (N = 100; age 73 +/- 0.9 years) participated in isometric knee extension strength tests, performed three functional ambulatory tasks (chair rise, gait speed, and stair ascent and descent), and answered standard survey questions assessing physical function. Significant relationships were observed between functional performance and the ratio of isometric leg extension peak torque to body weight (STR/WT) for each activity (p

Q: Physicians can be resistant to formulary management activities focused on reducing pharmacy costs. What can be done to institute needed formulary changes and garner physician support for those actions? A: Historically, hospital pharmacy and therapeutics (P&T) commit- tees have focused