title: The electronic nose in respiratory medicine.
abstract: Several volatile organic compounds have been identified in exhaled breath in healthy subjects and patients with respiratory diseases by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. Identification of selective patterns of volatile organic compounds in exhaled breath could be used as a biomarker of inflammatory lung diseases. An electronic nose (e-nose) is an artificial sensor system that generally consists of an array of chemical sensors for detection of volatile organic compound profiles (breathprints) and an algorithm for pattern recognition. E-noses are handheld, portable devices that provide immediate results. E-noses discriminate between patients with respiratory disease, including asthma, COPD and lung cancer, and healthy control subjects, and also among patients with different respiratory diseases. E-nose breathprints are associated with airway inflammation activity. In combination with other 'omics' platforms, e-nose technology might contribute to the identification of new surrogate markers of pulmonary inflammation and subphenotypes of patients with respiratory diseases, provide a molecular basis to a personalized pharmacological treatment, and facilitate the development of new drugs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Rome, Italy. pmontuschi@rm.unicatt.it
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Montuschi
authors.forename: Nadia
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Mores
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Trové
authors.forename: Chiara
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Mondino
authors.forename: Peter J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Barnes
mesh_terms: D062609:Electronic Nose; D006801:Humans; D015272:Pulmonary Medicine / Q000379:methods*; D012140:Respiratory Tract Diseases / Q000534:rehabilitation*