title: Real-time multi-marker measurement of organic compounds in human breath: towards fingerprinting breath.
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.
authors: Department of Chemistry, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK.
authors: Iain R
authors: IR
authors: White
authors: Kerry A
authors: KA
authors: Willis
authors: Chris
authors: C
authors: Whyte
authors: Rebecca
authors: R
authors: Cordell
authors: Robert S
authors: RS
authors: Blake
authors: Andrew J
authors: AJ
authors: Wardlaw
authors: Satish
authors: S
authors: Rao
authors: Jonathan
authors: J
authors: Grigg
authors: Andrew M
authors: AM
authors: Ellis
authors: Paul S
authors: PS
authors: Monks
mesh_terms: D000096:Acetone / Q000378:metabolism*; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001944:Breath Tests; D002492:Central Nervous System Depressants / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D002648:Child; D003550:Cystic Fibrosis / Q000378:metabolism; D000431:Ethanol / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D013058:Mass Spectrometry / Q000379:methods*; D008875:Middle Aged; D055549:Volatile Organic Compounds / Q000378:metabolism; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D002492:Central Nervous System Depressants; D055549:Volatile Organic Compounds; D000096:Acetone; D000431:Ethanol