title: Breath tests in respiratory and critical care medicine: from research to practice in current perspectives.
abstract: Today, exhaled nitric oxide has been studied the most, and most researches have now focused on asthma. More than a thousand different volatile organic compounds have been observed in low concentrations in normal human breath. Alkanes and methylalkanes, the majority of breath volatile organic compounds, have been increasingly used by physicians as a novel method to diagnose many diseases without discomforts of invasive procedures. None of the individual exhaled volatile organic compound alone is specific for disease. Exhaled breath analysis techniques may be available to diagnose and monitor the diseases in home setting when their sensitivity and specificity are improved in the future.
authors.affiliation: 10th Zonal Tuberculosis and Chest Disease Center, Chiang Mai, 10th Office of Disease Prevention and Control, Department of Disease Control, Ministry of Public Health, Chiang Mai 50100, Thailand.
authors.forename: Attapon
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cheepsattayakorn
authors.forename: Ruangrong
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Cheepsattayakorn
mesh_terms: D000473:Alkanes; D001249:Asthma / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology; D001944:Breath Tests / Q000379:methods*; D045853:Exhalation / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D009569:Nitric Oxide / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D055549:Volatile Organic Compounds
chemical_list: D000473:Alkanes; D055549:Volatile Organic Compounds; D009569:Nitric Oxide