Respiration Inducing System for Radiation Therapy Feedback
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current radiation therapy techniques, particularly four-dimensional and respiratory-gated radiation therapy, face challenges in maintaining stable patient respiration, leading to reduced therapeutic accuracy and increased treatment time due to reliance on guiding signals without real-time feedback, especially for patients with lung diseases.
Innovation Solution
A respiration inducing system that captures and analyzes patient respiration images to determine stability and provides real-time feedback through a guiding signal, allowing patients to adjust their breathing to match a stable pattern, ensuring accurate radiation delivery during therapy.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If conventional gating method using only guiding signals is used, then the radiation therapy can be performed, but the therapeutic accuracy is low and treatment time is long due to unstable patient respiration
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a feedback mechanism by capturing real-time respiration images, analyzing them to determine respiration stability, and providing visual feedback to patients. This allows patients to adjust their breathing to achieve stable respiration patterns, thereby improving therapeutic accuracy without significantly extending treatment time
Solution Approach 2:
The system enables patients to self-regulate their respiration by displaying real-time respiration images and allowing them to adjust their breathing independently. The patient serves themselves by watching the feedback and making voluntary adjustments to maintain stable respiration during therapy
2Manufacturing precision
If RPM system is used to control radiation machine, then radiation therapy can be performed, but the system has very low therapeutic accuracy because it only uses respiration period without considering respiration pattern or volume
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an image processing and analysis system as an intermediary between the patient's respiration and the radiation delivery control. This intermediary captures visual respiration data, analyzes multiple parameters (period, pattern, volume), and provides comprehensive feedback, thereby improving therapeutic accuracy without requiring direct complex integration with the RPM system
Solution Approach 2:
The system adds a visual imaging dimension to respiration monitoring by capturing images of the patient's chest/abdomen movement. This transforms the monitoring from one-dimensional (respiration period only) to multi-dimensional (period, pattern, and volume), significantly improving therapeutic accuracy
3Manufacturing precision
If stereotactic body radiation therapy is used for moving organ, then precise radiation can be delivered, but the treatment time becomes significantly long and side effects increase
Solution Approach 1:
By implementing real-time visual feedback of respiration patterns, the system enables patients to maintain stable respiration throughout the treatment process. This stability allows for precise radiation delivery to moving organs without requiring excessively long treatment times, thereby reducing side effects while maintaining precision
4Stability of the object's composition
If patients are asked to breathe stably without real-time feedback, then they can practice respiration control, but they cannot check their own respiratory status and maintain stable respiration
Solution Approach 1:
The system provides real-time visual feedback by capturing and displaying images of the patient's respiration movements. This allows patients to immediately see whether their breathing is stable or not, making it easy for them to adjust their respiration in real-time without requiring complex monitoring equipment or professional assistance
Data Source
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AI summary
A system for inducing respiration according to one embodiment of the present invention comprises: an imaging unit for picking a respiration image of a patient; a respiration signal conversion unit for obtaining a respiration signal of the patient by image processing, and tracking and analyzing the respiration image of the patient obtained from the imaging unit; and a respiration determination unit for determining one or more of whether the obtained respiration signal is suitable for radiation treatment, whether the obtained respiration signal is stable, and whether a matching score between the respiration signal of the patient and a guide respiration is greater than a predetermined reference value; and a respiration guide unit for providing the respiration signal of the patient, obtained from the respiration signal conversion unit, together with a stored guide signal.