Pulmonary Impairment in Sedentary Transit Operations at Low Altitude (PISTOLA): An Operational Study of Long-Haul Flight Effects
Abstract
An operational study was performed to replicate previous findings indicating pulmonary decline across long missions in a confined cockpit. Ten subjects completed a 12-hour simulated sortie in a model cockpit situated inside a hypobaric chamber maintaining 8000-foot equivalent altitude pressure. While situated in the cockpit, subjects performed simulated flight tasks at intervals, read, watched videos, and were offered refreshment and nourishment as desired. Subjects were administered Pulmonary Function Tests before and after the event, including recovery up to one hour after the flight. COVID delays, medical DQ and attrition truncated the study from its planned sample size of 15, so parametric analyses were deferred to accommodate adding future participants, if resources and circumstances permit, to reach the planned sample size. For this reason, the Results section reports only the configuration of marginal means to date: Pulmonary metrics including Forced Vital Capacity (FVC), Forced Expiratory Volume: First Second (FEV1), and Peak Expiratory Flow (PEF) showed mean decreases of 3.3 ,1.9 , and 3.8 respectively from levels recorded before flight. FEV1/FVC ratio showed no evidence of systematic decrease. Decreases do not disconfirm the hypothesis that long missions in confined spaces reduce pulmonary capacity, but variance is wide relative to the magnitude of mean differences. This empirical question can be resolved more definitively in future pending the addition of more subjects to fulfill the planned sample size and statistical power. Investigators are pursuing resources to accomplish this follow-on effort
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 30, 2023
- Accession Number
- AD1220924
Entities
People
- Andrew Mojica
- Bria Morse
- Jeremy Beer
- Paul Sherman
Organizations
- 59th Medical Wing