Investigation of everyday influencing factors on the variability of exhaled breath profiles in healthy subjects

Abstract

Abstract Introduction: The human breath is an accurate but complex read-out of many physiological processes in the organism that can be monitored via volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the exhaled air. However, there are many confounding variables that limit the transfer and application of breath analysis to become a clinical procedure. Method: This work aims to establish a systematic procedure for sampling and characterization of various everyday influences of healthy subjects using proton transfer reaction-mass spectrometry (PTR-MS). In order to limit the influencing factors on the breath profile, a standard analysis procedure for sampling and evaluation of the exhaled breath samples was developed. The correlations between the selected experimental conditions and the resulting VOC profiles were investigated using a non-parametric Wilcoxon rank sum test. Results: In addition to the relevant influence of methodological experimental parameters, interesting insights into the effect of everyday factors on the exhalat gas were obtained and discussed. Furthermore, subject and condition-specific differences were found in the exhaled air of male and female subjects. Conclusion: With a more robust, standardized and reproducible breath sampling protocol, breath analysis is a promising non-invasive tool towards a system-wide understanding and personalized diagnosis and treatment of a wide range of diseases.