Electronic nose can detect asthma

An electronic nose is a device that can sense volatile organic compounds in the breath and distinguish asthma patients from healthy people. Exhaled breath contains thousands of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that could serve as markers of asthma and other lung diseases, and electronic noses can use pattern recognition to classify different VOC mixtures. Researchers from the Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands used an electronic nose to compare the exhaled breath of patients with an established diagnosis of asthma with that of healthy subjects. Ten young adults with mild asthma were compared with 10 similar healthy people, and 10 older patients with severe asthma were compared with 10 healthy peers. "Smellprints" of young patients with mild asthma were distinguished from those of comparison group with 100 per cent accuracy, and smellprints of patients with severe asthma were distinguished from those of comparison group with 90 per cent accuracy. Smellprints were less effective in discriminating patients with mild asthma from patients with severe asthma. Electronic noses have the potential to become convenient devices for physicians and nurses for handheld, non-invasive and rapid diagnosis of asthma. The findings warrant further validation of electronic noses regarding their ability to correctly identify new patients with asthma. However, they are less accurate in distinguishing asthma severity.