title: Monitoring states of altered carbohydrate metabolism via breath analysis: are times ripe for transition from potential to reality?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To introduce the potential of breath analysis as a diagnostic or monitoring tool in diabetes.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Blood testing for plasma glucose and other metabolic variables is the base for the diagnosis and management of diabetes, whose two main types (type 1 and type 2, T1DM, T2DM) are projected to affect 450 million by 2030. As blood testing is often uncomfortable, painful, costly, and in some situations unreliable, the quest for alternative, noninvasive methods has been ongoing for decades. Breath analysis has emerged as an ideal alternative as sample collection is easy, painless, flexible, noninvasive, practical, and inexpensive. No single exhaled gas can reflect systemic glucose concentrations. Multiple gases, however, have been linked to various aspects of glucose metabolism, and integrated analysis of their simultaneous profiles during prolonged glycemic fluctuations has yielded accurate predictions of plasma values, building expectation that a clinically usable breath-based glucometer may be developed within a few years.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  While prototypes of hand-held breath testing glucometers may still be several years away, current research shows the imminent promise of this methodology and the widening support for its development.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Clinical and Translational Science, University of California, Irvine, California 92697, USA.
authors.forename: Newsha
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Dowlaty
authors.forename: Amanda
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Yoon
authors.forename: Pietro
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Galassetti
mesh_terms: D001786:Blood Glucose / Q000032:analysis; D015190:Blood Glucose Self-Monitoring / Q000379:methods; D001944:Breath Tests / Q000379:methods*; D050260:Carbohydrate Metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D003922:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1 / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis; D045853:Exhalation; D006801:Humans; D055549:Volatile Organic Compounds
chemical_list: D001786:Blood Glucose; D055549:Volatile Organic Compounds