The problem of heavy metal toxicity is a burning issue all over the world and more prominent in countries like Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. Often times, it is seen that the people of the affected areas are unaware of the toxic effects of these metals. Medical practitioners at the same time did not investigate the presence of heavy metals in the body. The present study aims to analyze the concentration of toxic heavy metals in different body fluids and their correlation with other medical investigations. The amounts of heavy metals viz Cu, Pb, Mn and Ni in random patients suffering from liver, kidney and heart diseases of Mayo Hospital Lahore have been investigated with the help of flame atomic absorption spectrophotometer. The routine medical tests and treatment was performed in the same hospital while the analysis of heavy metals was done in GC University Lahore. The values of selected heavy metals are high in patients as compared to their allowed or standard values. The value of Mn was between 0.36 and 24.16 ppm; for Pb, the values were between 2.10 and 24.79 ppm; for Ni it was between 2.33 and 243.59 ppm and for Cu the values of these were between 3.10 and 18.83 ppm. All these values were much greater than the allowed limits.

The diagnosis of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) remains a challenging task despite significant increase in the understanding of the disease aetiology and pathogenesis. Recent decade has seen a massive interest in the non-invasive diagnostic biomarkers of IBD, consequently a number of studies have explored a variety of potential biomarkers to diagnose the disease and monitor the disease activity. Volatile metabolites are the chemicals, which emanate from biological fluids and can reflect the status of health and disease of an individual. Recent advances in the analytical techniques have enabled the detection and interpretation of the changes in volatile metabolites in breath, urine, faeces and blood of an individual in correlation with various gastrointestinal (GI) disorders including IBD. This can provide a simple, fast and reproducible diagnosis at the point of care. This review focuses on the current and future novel approaches for detecting and the monitoring gut inflammation in IBD by using volatile organic metabolites.

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Distinct changes can be observed in the odor of human excretions during health and disease. Identifying underlying volatile metabolites responsible for these odorous changes can be correlated with the pathological process within the body. Advances in the technology have enabled us to interpret the volatile signature of these changes in the odor. This has opened a promising area to lay the foundations of a rapid, noninvasive and point of care diagnostic tool. This review explores the diagnostic potential of volatile organic metabolites as novel biomarkers and extends the discussion on the clinical applications of these biomarkers in gastrointestinal disorders.