Prog Med Phys.  2022 Dec;33(4):136-141. 10.14316/pmp.2022.33.4.136.

Development of a Breath Control Training System for Breath-Hold Techniques and Respiratory-Gated Radiation Therapy

• Choun HJ
• Kim Ji
• Park JM
• Son J

• KMID: 2537882
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.14316/pmp.2022.33.4.136

Abstract

Purpose
This study aimed to develop a breath control training system for breath-hold technique and respiratory-gated radiation therapy wherein the patients can learn breath-hold techniques in their convenient environment.
Methods
The breath control training system comprises a sensor device and software. The sensor device uses a loadcell sensor and an adjustable strap around the chest to acquire respiratory signals. The device connects via Bluetooth to a computer where the software is installed. The software visualizes the respiratory signal in near real-time with a graph. The developed system can signal patients through visual (software), auditory (buzzer), and tactile (vibrator) stimulation when breath-holding starts. A motion phantom was used to test the basic functions of the developed breath control training system. The relative standard deviation of the maxima of the emulated free breathing data was calculated. Moreover, a relative standard deviation of a breath-holding region was calculated for the simulated breath-holding data.
Results
The average force of the maxima was 487.71 N, and the relative standard deviation was 4.8%, while the average force of the breath hold region was 398.5 N, and the relative standard deviation was 1.8%. The data acquired through the sensor was consistent with the motion created by the motion phantom.
Conclusions
We have developed a breath control training system comprising a sensor device and software that allow patients to learn breath-hold techniques in their convenient environment.

Keyword

Respiratory-gated radiotherapy; Breath-hold; Breath control training system; Deep inspiration breath hold

Figure

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  Fig. 1 The breathing control training system. (a) The sensor device strapped on a body phantom. (b) The main components of the device including printed circuit board (PCB). (c) The arrangement of the battery, the loadcell sensor, and the webbing belt. (d) The software.

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  Fig. 2 The procedure of the breath control training: device connection (upper left), free breathing measurement for baseline determination (upper right), the first breath-holding measurement for threshold determination (lower left), and repetitive breath control training session (lower right).

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  Fig. 3 The schematic diagram showing the threshold determination process using (a) free breathing measurement and (b) breath-hold measurement.

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  Fig. 4 Basic function test setup with the device tightly strapped to the Surrogate Motion of the Model 008A Dynamic Thorax Phantom.

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  Fig. 5 Force-time graph of the data acquired with the breath control training system. (a) The emulated free breathing motion data. (b) The emulated breath-holding motion data.

Reference

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