Toward applying a device to reduce motion artifact during imaging: a randomized controlled trial

ABSTRACT

Objective

One of the most critical problems in different types of medical imaging modalities is unwanted patient movement during imaging procedures, which mainly occurs because of stress, anxiety, and restlessness in patients, resulting in poor image quality and decreased diagnostic accuracy.

Methods

This prospective, randomized, double-blinded, controlled trial comprised 267 patients who underwent MPI, randomly divided into three groups; Group I: streaming music with a special binaural beat frequency (MBB); Group II: streaming simple music (SM) and Group III: control group. Anxiety level was determined by the Depression Anxiety Stress-Scale (DASS) questionnaire and heart rate was monitored.

Results

Stress and anxiety scores were significantly lower in the MBB group compared with both SM and control group (P˂0.0001). Additionally, a significant decrease in heart rate of patients who were in the MBB group in comparison with the SM (p = 0.005) and control group (P = 0.018) was observed. The study revealed a significant decrease in motion artifact in the MBB group compared with the SM (P = 0.003) and control (P˂0.0001) groups.

Conclusions

Using the proposed device capable of streaming special binaural beat frequency embedded music can cause a significant reduction in anxiety level, heart rate, and consequently motion artifact.

KEYWORDS:

• Binaural beat
• anxiety
• stress
• motion artifact
• myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI)
• music

Acknowledgments

This study has been approved by the Ethics Committee (No. IR.SUMS.REC.1396.S624) and Institutional Review Board of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences (No. 12302) and the informed consent form was signed by all of the patients included in the study.

It should be noted that this research led to the making of a device and the registration as a patent with patent number IR99530. The authors would like to thank the staff of the nuclear medicine department of Al-Zahra hospital for their cooperation. The authors wish to thank the Research Consultation Center (RCC) at Shiraz University of Medical Sciences for their invaluable assistance in statistical analysis.

Declaration of interest

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants, or patents received or pending, or royalties.

Reviewer disclosures

Peer reviewers in this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Authors’ contributions

SM Zahraei-Moghaddam, study concept and design, acquisition of data, wrote the first draft.

M. Haghighatafshar, study design, analysis and interpretation of data, critical revision of manuscript for intellectual content, study supervision.

F. Shekoohi-Shooli, analysis and interpretation of data, wrote the first draft.

S. Miladi, analysis and interpretation of data.

F. Farhoudi, interpretation of data, critical revision of manuscript for intellectual content.

All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

This study has been approved by the Ethics Committee and Institutional Review Board of Shiraz University of Medical Science and the informed consent forms were signed by all of the patients included in the study (No. IR.SUMS.REC.1396.S624).