A Bunkowski et al 2009 J. Breath Res. 3 046001 doi:10.1088/1752-7155/3/4/046001
A Bunkowski1, B Bödeker1, S Bader1, M Westhoff2, P Litterst2 and J I Baumbach1
Show affiliationsA feasibility study using an ion mobility spectrometer coupled with a multi-capillary column (MCC) was started to identify characteristic peaks of volatile compounds in exhaled human breath samples of 10 ml volume. The breath of 20 patients with sarcoidosis and suspicion of sarcoidosis because of mediastinal lymph node enlargement was investigated. Using a set of procedures for data processing and scoring a sector of interest was determined within the IMS-chromatogram. It could be shown that a procedure related to a single peak in the IMS-chromatogram delivers differentiation into the two groups of patients with confirmed sarcoidosis and those suffering no sarcoidosis. The potential biomarker is characterized by the following parameters: inverse mobility (1/K0) 0.53 ± 0.01 V s cm−2—retention time 22 ± 5 s. These results are a first step in breath analysis by MCC/IMS in patients with sarcoidosis by an automated procedure applied to IMS-chromatograms directly.
Issue 4 (December 2009)
Received 15 February 2009, accepted for publication 11 August 2009
Published 23 September 2009
A Bunkowski et al 2009 J. Breath Res. 3 046001
S A Wells et al 2009 Phys. Biol. 6 046005