An electronic nose can sniff out idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis

Background: The current diagnostic work-up and monitoring of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is often invasive, time consuming and expensive. Breath analysis by electronic nose technology has shown potential in the diagnosis of numerous respiratory diseases. In this pilot study, we investigated whether exhaled breath analysis by an electronic nose could discriminate between patients with and without IPF. Methods: We enrolled 10 patients with well-characterized IPF (UIP and NSIP patterns), 10 individuals with COPD and 10 healthy controls. An electronic nose (Cyranose 320) was used to analyze exhaled breath samples. Raw data were processed by Principal component reduction and Canonical discriminant analysis. Results: The electronic nose could adequately discriminate among breath profiles of IPF, COPD and healthy controls, with a Cross Validated Accuracy of 96.7% (p Conclusions: The exhaled breath Volatile Organic Compounds- profile of patients with IPF can be detected by an electronic nose. This suggests that breath analysis has potential for diagnosis and/or monitoring of IPF.