Breath Volatolomics for Medical Applications. Are We There Yet? |Biomedgrid

Over the last few decades, exhaled breath has been keeping constant attention of the medical community as it has often been reported as one of the most promising low invasiveness matrix for potential diagnosis of various diseases [1,2]. Indeed, as the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) contained in the exhaled air of a human being are linked to metabolic pathways taking place in the body, one can expect the VOC fingerprint to be impacted by pathologies, especially in the case of pulmonary diseases, but not only as VOCs are blood-borne chemicals. It is therefore open season for the hunt of exhaled biomarkers in analytical laboratories, and many mavericks have been out chasing these days, with various levels of success. Looking into the scientific literature, because of the heterogenicity in study design, sampling approaches, measurements, and data processing, one can barely find comparable studies and conclude on any robust (sets of) VOCs for specific disease diagnostic.