A STONE PHANTOM DEVICE FOR LITHOTRIPSY QUALITY ASSURANCE

THE PURPOSE OF THIS WORK IS TO DEVELOP A NOVEL INTEGRATED STONE PHANTOM DEVICE, WHICH WOULD MONITOR AND DISPLAY THE CONDITION OF A PHANTOM STONE AS IT IS CRUSHED TO A POWDER BY AN EXTRACORPOREAL SHOCK WAVE LITHOTRIPSY SYSTEM. THE STONE PHANTOM DEVICE WILL DISPLAY THE NUMBER OF SHOCK WAVES OF A GIVEN ENERGY NECESSARY FOR STONE COMMINUTION, THEREBY TESTING THE LITHOTRIPTER'S SHOCK WAVE GENERATING, FOCUSSING, AND STONE LOCALIZING SUBSYSTEMS, AND ALSO THE OPERATOR'S ALIGNMENT SKILLS. IT WILL CONTRIBUTE TO SIGNIFICANT ADVANCES IN LITHOTRIPSY TREATMENT, IN TERMS OF INCREASING LITHOTRIPSY SYSTEM RELIABILITY, IMPROVING OPERATOR PROFICIENCY, OPTIMIZING OVERALL TREATMENT EFFICIENCY, AND UNDERSTANDING THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN TREATMENT PARAMETERS AND STONE DESTRUCTION. BASED ON OUR INITIAL RESEARCH, THE PHASE I PORTION OF THE PROJECT WILL FOCUS ON: 1) DEVELOPING A RELIABLE WAY TO MONITOR THE PHANTOM STONE; 2) INVESTIGATING SEVERAL STONE-MIMICKING MATERIALS; 3) REFINING THE METHOD OF STONE CONSTRAINT; AND 4) DEVELOPING RELIABLE METHODS FOR SYNCHRONIZING THE SYSTEM WITH SHOCK WAVE DISCHARGES. WHEN FULLY DEVELOPED UNDER PHASE II, THE STONE PHANTOM DEVICE WILL REPRESENT A NEW STANDARD REFERENCE FOR THE MEASUREMENT AND EVALUATION OF LITHOTRIPSY SYSTEMS, APPLICABLE TO CLINICAL QUALITY ASSURANCE, OPERATOR TRAINING, AND LITHOTRIPSY SYSTEM INTRA- AND INTER-COMPARISON.