Breath gas analysis

Breath gas analysis is a method for gaining information on the clinical state of an individual by monitoring volatile organic compounds (VOCs) present in the exhaled breath. Exhaled breath is naturally produced by the human body through expiration and therefore can be collected in non-invasively and in an unlimited way. VOCs in exhaled breath can represent biomarkers for certain pathologies (lung cancer, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and others). Breath gas concentration can then be related to blood concentrations via mathematical modeling as for example in blood alcohol testing. There are various techniques that can be employed to collect and analyze exhaled breath. Even if research on exhaled breath started many years ago, there is still no clinical application of it for disease diagnosis. Breath gas analysis is a method for gaining information on the clinical state of an individual by monitoring volatile organic compounds (VOCs) present in the exhaled breath. Exhaled breath is naturally produced by the human body through expiration and therefore can be collected in non-invasively and in an unlimited way. VOCs in exhaled breath can represent biomarkers for certain pathologies (lung cancer, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and others). Breath gas concentration can then be related to blood concentrations via mathematical modeling as for example in blood alcohol testing. There are various techniques that can be employed to collect and analyze exhaled breath. Even if research on exhaled breath started many years ago, there is still no clinical application of it for disease diagnosis. It is known that since the times of Hyppocrates, exhaled breath analysis was performed with the aim of disease diagnosis. For example, it was believed that the exhaled breath of a diabetes person presented a sweet odor, while for people affected by kidney failure it showed a fish-like smell. Only with Lavoisier, the pure smelling of human exhaled breath was substituted by a systematic analysis of the chemical contents. The area of modern breath testing started in 1971, when Nobel Prize winner Linus Pauling demonstrated that human breath is a complex gas, containing more than 200 different VOCs. Later, Phillips identified more than 3000 VOCs in exhaled breath. In recent years, many scientists focused on the analysis of exhaled breath with the aim of identifying disease specific biomarkers at early stages. Lung cancer,COPD, head and neck cancer are among the diseases that were considered for biomarker detection. Even if exhaled breath analysis started many years ago, there is still no clinical application of it for disease diagnosis. This is mainly due to a lack of standardization of the clinical tests, both for breath collection procedures and their analysis. Endogenous volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are released within the human organism as a result of normal metabolic activity or due to pathological disorders. They enter the blood stream and are eventually metabolized or excreted via exhalation, skin emission, urine, etc. Breath sampling is non-invasive and breath samples can be extracted as often as desired. Identification and quantification of potential disease biomarkers can be seen as the driving force for the analysis of exhaled breath. Moreover, future applications for medical diagnosis and therapy control with dynamic assessments of normal physiological function or pharmacodynamics are intended. Exogenous VOCs penetrating the body as a result of environmental exposure can be used to quantify body burden. Also breath tests are often based on the ingestion of isotopically labeled precursors, producing isotopically labeled carbon dioxide and potentially many other metabolites. However, breath sampling is far from being a standardized procedure due to the numerous confounding factors biasing the concentrations of volatiles in breath. These factors are related to both the breath sampling protocols as well as the complex physiological mechanisms underlying pulmonary gas exchange. Even under resting conditions exhaled breath concentrations of VOCs can strongly be influenced by specific physiological parameters such as cardiac output and breathing patterns, depending on the physico-chemical properties of the compound under study.