title: A novel method for diagnosing chronic rhinosinusitis based on an electronic nose.
abstract: The nasal out-breath of persons with chronic nasal and/or paranasal infections may have characteristic strange odors, which in our experience are in most cases related to bacterial and/or fungal infections of the sinuses. The objective of the present study was to examine nasal out-breath samples from patients with chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) (with or without polyposis) and healthy control volunteers using the electronic-nose (EN) technology. We developed a simple technique for collecting samples of nasal out-breath in disposable sterile plastic sacks with a tight closing seal. The principal component analysis correctly classified all individual EN patterns for CRS patients and misclassified 2 samples from the healthy controls (80.0% successful classification rate). The artificial neural network analysis correctly classified 60.0% of the patterns of both groups. We believe that the use of methodologies based on EN technology, combined with conventional clinical examinations, may improve the diagnosis of chronic rhinosinusitis.
authors.affiliation: Biophysics Department, Medical Research Institute, University of Alexandria, Egypt.
authors.forename: Ehab I
authors.initials: EI
authors.lastname: Mohamed
authors.forename: Ernesto
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bruno
authors.forename: Roland
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Linder
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Alessandrini
authors.forename: Alberto
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Di Girolamo
authors.forename: Siegfried J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Pöppl
authors.forename: Alberto
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Puija
authors.forename: Antonino
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: De Lorenzo
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002908:Chronic Disease; D004581:Electronics; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012220:Rhinitis / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis*; D012852:Sinusitis / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis*