Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 8.7
Biomarkers and their respective physiological concentration ranges in the human
breath [ 53 ]
Biomarkers
Physiological origin
Related
diseases
Physiological ranges
in human breath
Ethane
Lipid peroxidation
Oxidative
stress
1-11 ppb
Pentane
Lipid peroxidation
Oxidative
stress
Less than ethane
Isoprene
Cholesterol biosynthesis
Cholesterol
metabolic
disorder
55-121 ppb; 12-580 ppb;
Acetone
Decarboxylation of
acetoacetate
and acetyl-CoA
Diabetes
mellitus,
ketonemia
293-870 ppb; 1.2-1,880 ppb
Ethanol
Alcohol ingestion
Alcohol
poisoning
27-153 ppb; 13-1,000 ppb
Methanol
Degradation of natural pectin
from plants; ingestion
Methanol
intoxication
160-2,000 ppb
NH 3
Metabolic product of amino
acid deamination
Uremia,
kidney
impairment
422-2,389 ppb; 200-1,750 ppb
CO
Inhalation from Incomplete
burning of carbon
containing fuels, e.g.
smoking
Lung diseases
\6 ppm
NO
L-arginine oxidation
Asthma, lung
diseases
1-9 ppb, lower respiratory;
0.2-1 ppm upper respiratory;
1-30 ppm, nasal level
an artificial system and physiology system. The E-nose system developed to mimic
the function of human noses is developed with more precision and is everlasting.
Research is ongoing on the use of E-noses to diagnose illness by smelling patient's
breath with the option of installing tiny E-noses in phone receivers so that patients can
simply breathe into the phone and wait for diagnosis. To detect subtle changes in body
by odor which can help to indicate primary disease identification or disease present
conditions, high technology sniffers—E-nose are used just by smelling the breath.
Hence, there are a number of applications already developed and still developing with
the use of E-nose as we already discussed in the application overview.
To measure the concentrations of specific biomarkers in exhaled human breath,
different techniques/methods have been developed and can be classified into two
groups:
• Spectrometry/spectroscopy-based techniques
• Chemical sensors
The E-nose system makes use of chemical sensors that are particularly sensitive
to the biomarkers and compositions in human breath to trigger responses to a
patient's breath sample. In contrast to the broad panel of nonspecific sensors used
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