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

Abstract

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 DASS (Depression Anxiety Stress-Scale) 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. This method can be useful during the imaging procedure due to several reasons. First, this can cause a significant reduction in motion artifacts. Next, anxiety and stress can be reduced significantly due to the application of special binaural beat frequency embedded music during an imaging procedure. Then, a significant reduction in post-imaging stress and anxiety scores was achieved after using it. Finally, binaural beat frequency embedded music leads to imaging repetition avoidance.