Public Hospital La Paz has created an artificial intelligence (AI) system for diagnosing the health of astronauts in spaceto guide these professionals in taking ultrasound images of their organs to identify possible conditions while on assignment.

The system will help these professionals when faced with absence of gravity and cosmic radiation, factors that “represent a very hostile environment for the human body”, as indicated by a note from the Community of Madrid, on which the hospital depends.

This action is part of the Alisse project, which also involves the European Space Agency (ESA) and researchers from the nuclear physics group of the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM).

The objective is that this technology can guide and assist them in the acquisition of high quality diagnostic ultrasound images of the various organs likely to be affected by manned space travel, so that medical personnel can later identify, remotely of the Earth, the ailments which they might suffer at an early stage and “put remedy to prevent its advance”.

Indeed, although astronauts are in good health when they take off, the “hostile environment” of space can have consequences for their physical condition. For example, the absence of gravity can lead to loss of bone and muscle mass, in addition to causing deterioration of liver function, with an increased likelihood of formation of kidney stones and thrombi; while causing the eye to become hyperopic, among other ailments.

Cosmic radiation also has a “very negative” impact on the spleen, immune system and heart. The collaboration of Hospital La Paz in this initiative has been made through the Emergency Radiology Unit, which has proceeded to systematize ultrasound images so that this artificial intelligence tool learns them and is able to differentiate the normal from the pathological.

All are labeled according to the selected target organs, kidney, bladder, muscle, deep venous system, heart and eye, taking into account the most frequent pathologies related to microgravity.