Purpose
Abdominal intensity-modulated radiation therapy and proton therapy require quantification of target and organ motion to optimize localization and treatment. Although addressed in adults, there is no available literature on this issue in pediatric patients. We assessed physiologic renal motion in pediatric patients.
Methods and Materials
Twenty free-breathing pediatric patients at a median age of 8 years (range, 2-18 years) with intra-abdominal tumors underwent computed tomography (CT) simulation and 4-dimensional CT (4DCT) acquisition (slice thickness, 3 mm). Kidneys and diaphragms were contoured during 8 phases of respiration to estimate center of mass motion. We quantified center of kidney mass mobility vectors in 3 dimensions: anterior-posterior (A-P), medial-lateral (M-L), and superior-inferior (S-I).
Results
Kidney motion decreases linearly with decreasing age and height. The 95% confidence interval for the averaged minima and maxima of renal motion in children younger than 9 years was 5 to 9 mm in the M-L direction, 4 to 11 mm in the A-P direction, and 12 to 25 mm in the S-I dimension for both kidneys. In children older than 9 years, the same confidence interval reveals a widening range of motion that was 5 to 16 mm in the M-L direction, 6 to 17 mm in the A-P direction, and 21 to 52 mm in the S-I direction. Although not statistically significant, renal motion correlated with diaphragm motion in older patients. The correlation between diaphragm motion and BMI was borderline (r = 0.52, p = 0.0816) in younger patients.
Conclusions
Renal motion is age and height dependent. Measuring diaphragmatic motion alone does not reliably quantify pediatric renal motion. Renal motion in young children ranges from 5 to 25 mm in orientation-specific directions. The vectors of motion range from 5 to 52 mm in older children. These preliminary data represent novel analyses of pediatric intra-abdominal organ motion.