  At impact energies $ \stackrel{>}{\sim}1$ GeV/u the projectile-electron
excitation and loss occurring in collisions between highly charged ions and
neutral atoms is already strongly influenced by the presence of atomic
electrons. In order to treat these processes in collisions with heavy atoms we
generalize the symmetric eikonal model, used earlier for considerations of
electron transitions in ion-atom collisions within the scope of a three-body
Coulomb problem. We show that at asymptotically high collision energies this
model leads to an exact transition amplitude and is very well suited to
describe the projectile-electron excitation and loss at energies above a few
GeV/u. In particular, by considering a number of examples we demonstrate
advantages of this model over the first Born approximation at impact energies
$\sim 1$--30 GeV/u, which are of special interest for atomic physics
experiments at the future GSI facilities.
