Patent ID: 7783335

Claim:
A device for driving a radiotherapy unit for the purpose of treating organs in the human body subject to displacements related to movements of the diaphragm comprising: a spirometer for measuring the pulmonary volume of patients, support means for the spirometer that are able to keep it in a withdrawn position relative to the patient's head, said spirometer being connected to an oral nozzle via a breathing tube on which is interposed an interchangeable bacterial filter, a control unit connected to the spirometer, and to the radiotherapy unit so as to drive it, said control unit comprising: means for storing so-called resting and trigger values, representing respectively, for each patient, his level of resting ventilation and an inhalation or exhalation respiratory level, means for viewing the patient's breathing curve that are connected to the control unit and placed so as to be viewable by said patient, said control unit being adapted so as to generate the display on said viewing means of the resting and trigger values, said control unit being programmed so as to perform the following steps: when a patient is breathing at rest, the value of the patient's respiratory level measured by the spirometer is compared with the stored resting value, only when a first correspondence is established between the measured value of the patient's respiratory level and the stored resting value, the patient is subsequently asked to initiate a voluntary apnea which level is controlled by the patient himself by viewing his breathing curve on said means for viewing, so that a radiation session is initiated consisting of: when the patient is performing said voluntary apnea, radiation is triggered immediately by the control unit only when a second correspondence is established between the measured value of the patient's respiratory level and the stored trigger value, and said radiation is terminated immediately by the control unit when the patient ceases his voluntary apnea with this second correspondence being no longer respected.