Effectiveness of visual biofeedback-guided respiratory-correlated 4D-MRI for radiotherapy guidance on the MR-linac

Respiratory-correlated 4D-MRI may provide motion characteristics for radiotherapy but is susceptible to irregular breathing. This study investigated the effectiveness of visual biofeedback (VBF) guidance for breathing regularization during 4D-MRI acquisitions on an MR-linac.

A simultaneous multislice-accelerated 4D-MRI sequence was interleaved with a one-dimensional respiratory navigator (1D-RNAV) in 10 healthy volunteers on a 1.5T Unity MR-linac (Elekta AB, Stockholm, Sweden). Volunteer-specific breathing amplitudes and periods were derived from the 1D-RNAV signal obtained during unguided 4D-MRI acquisitions. These were used for the guidance waveform, while the 1D-RNAV positions were overlayed as VBF. VBF effectiveness was quantified by calculating the change in coefficient of variation ( $$ ) for the breathing amplitude and period, the position SD of end-exhale, end-inhale and midposition locations, and the agreement between the 1D-RNAV signals and guidance waveforms. The 4D-MRI quality was assessed by quantifying amounts of missing data.

VBF had an average latency of 520 ± 2 ms. VBF reduced median breathing variations by 18% to 35% (amplitude) and 29% to 57% (period). Median position SD reductions ranged from -3% to 35% (end-exhale), 29% to 38% (end-inhale), and 25% to 37% (midposition). Average differences between guidance waveforms and 1D-RNAV signals were 0.0 s (period) and +1.7 mm (amplitude). VBF also decreased the median amount of missing data by 11% and 29%.

A VBF system was successfully implemented, and all volunteers were able to adapt to the guidance waveform. VBF during 4D-MRI acquisitions drastically reduced breathing variability but had limited effect on missing data in respiratory-correlated 4D-MRI.