Research group

The LPHYS Lab works on understanding how extreme environments — such as space, Antarctica, and high-altitude — affect the cardiovascular function. The lab also works to translate these findings into practical tools for clinical application. As part of the Cardiology Department at Erasme University Hospital and the Faculty of Human Movement Sciences at ULB, LPHYS has over a decade of experience in space cardiology, contributing to research in both real and simulated microgravity (including head-down bed rest and parabolic flights). Under the leadership of Prof. Vitalie Faoro, a cardiovascular and respiratory physiology expert, the lab investigates how environmental and physiological stressors influence cardiovascular health and performance.

Our measurements combine advanced, gold-standard tools like 4D flow cardiac MRI with innovative wearable technologies, such as seismocardiography (SCG) and ballistocardiography (BCG), to enable non-invasive monitoring of the cardiac function in extreme environments. We have published key studies linking these techniques to critical cardiac features, including stroke volume, ejection fraction, and cardiac output, with applications in both healthy subjects (like astronauts) and patients (like heart failure). Our research has demonstrated the reduction in stroke volume and the increase in aortic stiffness during long-term head-down bed rest studies, as well as how advanced numerical modelling can predict age- or deconditioning-related changes in BCG waveforms. Our projects range from investigating microgravity-induced cardiovascular changes in mice to using wearable devices for detecting aortic insufficiency in elderly patients.

LPHYS collaborates internationally with leading experts, including Prof. Enrico Caiani from Politecnico di Milano (Italy), an expert in BCG, SCG, and e-health technologies; Prof. Jens Tank from the German Aerospace Institute (Germany), a specialist in cardiac physiology under space and high-altitude conditions; and Prof. Gustav Strijkers from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (the Netherlands), an expert in cardiovascular MRI.