title: Semiportable electrochemical instrument for determining carbon monoxide in breath.
abstract: Measurements of carbon monoxide (CO) in breath can be used for the diagnosis of hemolytic disease. A small, semiportable, easy-to-operate CO instrument was developed at Stanford University and tested at 12 Neonatal Research Network Centers of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. A syringe pump delivers 7.7 mL of sample per minute through an activate carbon filter to an electrochemical (EC) sensor having a sensitivity of 0.10 +/- 0.01 V per 1 microL/L CO in air. The electronically processed sensor signal is displayed on a digital multimeter. For a typical end-tidal CO measurement, corrected for inhaled CO, three 10- to 12-mL breath and room air samples are manually or mechanically collected and analyzed. CO determination in breath samples from 108 healthy, 1-day-old infants of nonsmoking mothers compared favorably with determinations by gas chromatography (GC), 1.3 +/- 0.8 vs 1.2 +/- 0.8 (mean +/- SD), respectively, with a regression equation of EC = 0.95 GC+0.13 (r2 = 0.98). The results demonstrate that the EC-CO instrument yields results that are comparable with those obtained by the more difficult to perform GC assay.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Stanford University School of Medicine, CA 94305-5119.
authors.forename: H J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Vreman
authors.forename: D K
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Stevenson
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Oh
authors.forename: A A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Fanaroff
authors.forename: L L
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Wright
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Lemons
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Wright
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shankaran
authors.forename: J E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Tyson
authors.forename: S B
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Korones
mesh_terms: D001944:Breath Tests / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D002248:Carbon Monoxide / Q000032:analysis*; D002849:Chromatography, Gas; D004563:Electrochemistry; D006461:Hemolysis; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D012044:Regression Analysis; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
chemical_list: D002248:Carbon Monoxide