title: Effectiveness of a breath-hold monitoring system in improving the reproducibility of different breath-hold positions in multiphasic CT imaging.
abstract: This study tests whether the utilization of an electronic breath-hold monitoring device improves breath-hold reproducibility during computed tomographic (CT) scanning. Two cohorts of 40 patients underwent dual-phase abdominal CT scans, either with a breath-hold monitoring device or with the standard breath-holding technique. Two blinded readers measured the differences in diaphragmatic position between phases. There was no statistical difference in diaphragmatic position (P=.14) between the monitored (8.5±11.5 mm) and control (5.6±5.2 mm) cohorts. Ten percent of patients from the monitored cohort had greater than 20 mm of deviation, versus 0%-2.5% for the control cohort. Reproduction of breath-holding position remains challenging, even with a monitoring system.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA. lars.grimm@duke.edu
authors.forename: Lars J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Grimm
authors.forename: Sebastian
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Feuerlein
authors.forename: Mustafa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bashir
authors.forename: Rendon C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Nelson
mesh_terms: D016477:Artifacts; D001676:Biofeedback, Psychology / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D062485:Breath Holding; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods*; D056888:Patient Positioning / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D016037:Single-Blind Method; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods