Variations of the Respiration Signals for Respiratory-Gated Radiotherapy Using the Video Coached Respiration Guiding System

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that a video coached respiration guiding system significantly improves respiratory regularity in lung cancer patients, potentially enhancing the accuracy and effectiveness of respiratory-gated radiotherapy.

Contribution

The paper introduces a video coached respiration guiding system that improves respiratory regularity in RGRT, based on clinical evaluation of 16 lung cancer patients.

Findings

Standard deviation of respiratory cycle decreased with guiding system

Respiratory regularity was significantly improved

Potential for enhanced RGRT accuracy

Abstract

Respiratory-gated radiation therapy (RGRT) has been used to minimize the dose to normal tissue in lung-cancer radiotherapy. The present research aims to improve the regularity of respiration in RGRT using a video coached respiration guiding system. In the study, 16 patients with lung cancer were evaluated. The respiration signals of the patients were measured by a real-time position management (RPM) Respiratory Gating System (Varian, USA) and the patients were trained using the video coached respiration guiding system. The patients performed free breathing and guided breathing, and the respiratory cycles were acquired for ~5 min. Then, Microsoft Excel 2010 software was used to calculate the mean and standard deviation for each phase. The standard deviation was computed in order to analyze the improvement in the respiratory regularity with respect to the period and displacement. The standard deviation of the guided breathing decreased to 65.14% in the inhale peak and 71.04% in the exhale peak compared with the values for the free breathing of patient 6. It was found that the standard deviation of the respiratory cycle was decreased using the respiratory guiding system. 2 The respiratory regularity was significantly improved using the video coached respiration guiding system. Therefore, the system is useful for improving the accuracy and efficiency of RGRT.