Scientific Reports (Dec 2020)

Combined effect of heart rate responses and the anti-G straining manoeuvre effectiveness on G tolerance in a human centrifuge

  • Min-Yu Tu,
  • Hsin Chu,
  • You-Jin Lin,
  • Kwo-Tsao Chiang,
  • Chuan-Mu Chen,
  • Hsin-Hui Chen,
  • Chen-Shu Yang,
  • Chung-Yu Lai

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-78687-3
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 10, no. 1
pp. 1 – 8

Abstract

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Abstract Increased heart rate (HR) is a reaction to head-to-toe gravito-inertial (G) force. The anti-G straining manoeuvre (AGSM) is the crucial technique for withstanding a high-G load. Previous studies reported the main effects of HR only or AGSM only on G tolerance. We assessed the combined effect of HR and AGSM on the outcome of 9G profile exposure. A total of 530 attempts for the 9G profile were extracted to clarify the association of interest. Subjects with an AGSM effectiveness of less than 2.5G had a 2.14-fold higher likelihood of failing in the 9G profile. Trainees with HR increases of less than 20% in the first five seconds also had higher odds of 9G profile intolerance (adjusted OR 1.83, 95% CI 1.09–3.07). The adjusted OR of 9G profile disqualification was 2.93 (95% CI 1.19–7.20) for participants with smaller HR increases and lower AGSM effectiveness. The negative effect of a smaller HR increase on the outcome was likely to be affected by improved AGSM effectiveness (adjusted OR 1.26, 95% CI 0.65–2.42). We speculate that low AGSM effectiveness and a small HR increase were separately associated with failure of high-G challenge. Nonetheless, good AGSM performance seemed to reduce the negative effect of weak HR responses on the dependent variable.