Development of Respiratory Training System Using Individual Characteristic Guiding Waveform

Kang, Seong Hee; Yoon, Jai Woong; Kim, Tae Ho; Suh, Tae Suk

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to develop the respiratory training system using individual characteristic guiding waveform to reduce the impact of respiratory motion that causes artifact in radiotherapy. In order to evaluate the improvement of respiratory regularity, 5 volunteers were included and their respiratory signals were acquired using the in-house developed belt-type sensor. Respiratory training system needs 10 free breathing cycles of each volunteer to make individual characteristic guiding waveform based on Fourier series and it guides patient's next breathing. For each volunteer, free breathing and guided breathing which uses individual characteristic guiding waveform were performed to acquire the respiratory cycles for 3 min. The root mean square error (RMSE) was computed to analyze improvement of respiratory regularity in period and displacement. It was found that respiratory regularity was improved by using respiratory training system. RMSE of guided breathing decreased up to 40% in displacement and 76% in period compared with free breathing. In conclusion, since the guiding waveform was easy to follow for the volunteers, the respiratory regularity was significantly improved by using in-house developed respiratory training system. So it would be helpful to improve accuracy and efficiency during 4D-RT, 4D-CT.