Real-time multi-marker measurement of organic compounds in human breath: towards fingerprinting breath

J Breath Res. 2013 Mar;7(1):017112. doi: 10.1088/1752-7155/7/1/017112. Epub 2013 Feb 27.

Abstract

The prospects for exploiting proton transfer reaction-time of flight-mass spectrometry (PTR-ToF-MS) in medical diagnostics are illustrated through a series of case studies. Measurements of acetone levels in the breath of 68 healthy people are presented along with a longitudinal study of a single person over a period of 1 month. The median acetone concentration across the population was 484 ppbV with a geometric standard deviation (GSD) of 1.6, whilst the average GSD during the single subject longtitudinal study was 1.5. An additional case study is presented which highlights the potential of PTR-ToF-MS in pharmacokinetic studies, based upon the analysis of online breath samples of a person following the consumption of ethanol. PTR-ToF-MS comes into its own when information across a wide mass range is required, particularly when such information must be gathered in a short time during a breathing cycle. To illustrate this property, multicomponent breath analysis in a small study of cystic fibrosis patients is detailed, which provides tentative evidence that online PTR-ToF-MS analysis of tidal breath can distinguish between active infection and non-infected patients.

MeSH terms

  • Acetone / metabolism*
  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Aged, 80 and over
  • Breath Tests*
  • Central Nervous System Depressants / pharmacokinetics
  • Child
  • Cystic Fibrosis / metabolism
  • Ethanol / pharmacokinetics
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Mass Spectrometry / methods*
  • Middle Aged
  • Volatile Organic Compounds / metabolism
  • Young Adult

Substances

  • Central Nervous System Depressants
  • Volatile Organic Compounds
  • Acetone
  • Ethanol