Олег Атьков: Советтік кардиолог және ғарышкер ғалымы

Soviet Russian cardiologist and cosmonaut (born 1949)

Oleg Yur'yevich At'kov (Russian: Оле́г Ю́рьевич Атько́в; born 9 May 1949) is a Russian cardiologist and former Soviet cosmonaut. With a doctorate from the Russian Academy of Medical Science, Atkov was chosen to be the health specialist on board Soyuz T 10 and Soyuz T 11. After Atkov's rather long time in space, he returned to work at the Myasnikov Institute of Clinical Cardiology to continue his research on the adaptation of weightlessness and cardiology. With his published research and time in space, Atkov holds two of the USSR's highest honors; the Order of Lenin and the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Atkov is a professor of medicine at the Russian National Research Medical University and currently serves as the vice president of Russian Railways.

Oleg Yur'yevich Atkov was born May 9, 1949, in Khvorostyanka, the former USSR. In 1973, Atkov graduated from I. M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University. After his studies at the university, he worked on postgraduate training and received from the Russian Academy of Medical sciences his doctorate in cardiology. Upon receiving his doctorate, Atkov started as a research fellow at the Myasnikov Institute of Clinical Cardiology of the Academy of Sciences and soon became the senior research fellow. He gained some fame in his field when he discovered a method to diagnose cardiovascular diseases using ultrasound. In 1984, a space flight was performed on board the orbital complex Salyut 7 Soyuz T. The crew consisted of Oleg Atkov (Cosmonaut Researcher), member Leonid Kizim (the commander), and Vladimir Solovyov (the Flight Engineer). As the cardiologist, Atkov brought with him his own invention—a portable ultrasound cardiograph—which he would use to oversee the crew's health throughout their time in space. The initiative for this team was to continue a major medical task that would advance the study of the acute stage of adaptation to weightlessness, phenomenology, and mechanisms of changes in hemodynamics, metabolism, and other functions. At the end of the Soyuz T 10 expedition, Atkov had estimated a total of 87 days spent on flight dedicated to medical work. When the three cosmonauts landed back on Earth they realized that they had become the new space endurance record holders, staying up in space over a month longer than Soyuz T 5. The crew spent a total of 236 days, 22 hours, and 49 minutes in space.

When Atkov returned to Earth he ended his cosmonaut career by retiring on October 2, 1984.

In a 2012 interview with 3 Eyes Observer, Dr. Atkov was questioned about the future of space exploration. He answered the question by saying that we need to focus on returning to the Moon, but with a different goal than the space race that occurred half a century prior. He told the interviewer that space exploration used to be two superpower nations, the United States and the Soviet Union, racing against each other. However space travel should now be more focused on establishing an international base on the surface of the Moon in order to create an "outpost for Universe observation and solar system observation." Additionally, he added that there should be a focus on reaching Mars as well, but that those two goals should be prepared in safe conditions because of the known hazards that will be found.

Once Dr. Atkov returned from space, he participated in many research studies. These studies included coronary heart disease research, The Variations of Intrathoracic Amount of Blood as a Reason of ECG Voltage Changes, and several other projects.

Oleg Atkov, and other scientist conducted a research titled the Coronary heart disease diagnosis by artificial neural networks including genetic polymorphisms and clinical parameters. The members of this research include Oleg Yu. Atkov, MD, PhDa, Svetlana G. Gorokhova, MD, PhDb, Alexandr G. Sboev, PhDc, Eduard V. Generozov, PhDd, Elena V. Muraseyeva, MD, PhDe, Svetlana Y. Moroshkinad, and Nadezhda N. Cherniyc.“The goal of this study was to develop an artificial neural networks based diagnostic model for coronary heart disease using traditional and genetic factors of CHD (Coronary heart disease). In summary, this study was used to create CHD diagnostic models with the appropriate analytical characteristics. These characteristics consisted of using MLP artificial neural networks. The best accuracy was provided in models that had both genetic and non genetic factors associated with CHD. The models that had less than a 90% accuracy could potentially serve as a basis for development of software tools for diagnosis and predictors for CHD.

Oleg Atkov participated in a study titled The Variations of Intrathoracic Amount of Blood as a Reason of ECG Voltage Changes. Marina Saltykova Ph. D.1, Andre Capderou M. D., Ph. D.2, Oleg Atkov M. D.1, Victor Gusakov M. S.3, Gennagiy Konovalov M. S.3, Leonid Voronin M. D.3, Rustem Kaspranskiy M. D.3, Valeriy Morgun M. D.3, Olivier Bailliart M. D., Ph. D.4, Milan Cermack M. D.5 and Pierre Vaïda M. D.6 were the members of this team. “The main goal of the study was to estimate the influence of the variations of thoracic electroconduction, and heart volume on QRS voltage in humans due to gravity change.” The balance between changes of degree of short circuiting by changes in the amount of blood in thorax and the changes of distance between heart and electrodes as a result of position, form, and volume of the heart are what influence the steadiness.

After Atkov's time in space, he dedicated most of his work towards the Russian railways and cardiology. Within the cardiology field, Atkov has been a part of 15 major projects that has helped advance the types of technology in cardiology research.