Comparison between audio-only and audiovisual biofeedback for regulating patients' respiration during four-dimensional radiotherapy

PURPOSE To compare audio-only biofeedback to conventional audiovisual biofeedback for regulating patients' respiration during four-dimensional radiotherapy, limiting damage to healthy surrounding tissues caused by organ movement. MATERIALS AND METHODS Six healthy volunteers were assisted by audiovisual or audio-only biofeedback systems to regulate their respirations. Volunteers breathed through a mask developed for this study by following computer-generated guiding curves displayed on a screen, combined with instructional sounds. They then performed breathing following instructional sounds only. The guiding signals and the volunteers' respiratory signals were logged at 20 samples per second. RESULTS The standard deviations between the guiding and respiratory curves for the audiovisual and audio-only biofeedback systems were 21.55% and 23.19%, respectively; the average correlation coefficients were 0.9778 and 0.9756, respectively. The regularities between audiovisual and audio-only biofeedback for six volunteers' respirations were same statistically from the paired t-test. CONCLUSION The difference between the audiovisual and audio-only biofeedback methods was not significant. Audio-only biofeedback has many advantages, as patients do not require a mask and can quickly adapt to this method in the clinic.