Usefulness of electronic nose in detection of Interstitial Lung Diseases (ILD)

Abstract

Introduction: Interstitial lung diseases (ILD) constitute a heterogeneous group of entities with significant impact on survival. Early diagnosis is fundamental, however it is difficult in clinical practice. The electronic nose is a non-invasive technology capable to distinguishing volatile organic compound (VOC) breath-prints in exhaled breath. Objective: To determine if electronic nose was able to discriminate ILD patients from healthy controls and other prevalent lung diseases like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Methods: Prospective observational study. Fifty-nine ILD patients, 31 healthy controls and 40 COPD patients were included. In each case, exhaled air was collected in Tedlar bags and VOCs breath-prints were detected by the commercially available electronic nose Cyranose320®. Cross-validatin accuracy was assessed using principal component reduction analysis, as our group previously described and validated. Results: Median age of ILD patients, healthy controls and COPD patients were (65±13 years; 37±22 years; 68±5 years) and median FEV1 of these groups were (82±20% ref; 102±9%; 41±10% ref). Patients under study of ILD showed a different VOCs breath-print from healthy controls (accuracy 90%, AUROC 0.92, p Conclusions: The electronic nose is able to identify ILD patients from healthy controls as well as COPD patients. More studies are needed to determine if an electronic nose could play a role as a non-invasive diagnostic method in the screening of ILD.