A Low-Cost Device for Measurement of Exhaled Breath for the Detection of Obstructive Lung Disease

Abstract

Breath sensor technology can be used in medical diagnostics. This study aimed to build a device to measure the level of hydrogen sulfide, ammonia, acetone and alcohol in exhaled breath of patients as well as healthy individuals. The purpose was to determine the efficacy of these gases for detection of obstructive lung disease. This study was conducted on a total of 105 subjects, where 60 subjects were patients of obstructive lung disease and 45 subjects were healthy individuals. Patients were screened by means of the Pulmonary Function Test (PFT) by a pulmonologist. The gases present in the exhaled breath of all subjects were measured. The level of ammonia (32.29 ± 20.83 ppb), (68.83 ± 35.25 ppb), hydrogen sulfide (0.50 ± 0.26 ppm), (62.71 ± 22.20 ppb), and acetone (103.49 ± 35.01 ppb), (0.66 ± 0.31 ppm) in exhaled breath were significantly different (p < 0.05) between obstructive lung disease patients and healthy individuals, except alcohol, with a p-value greater than 0.05. Positive correlation was found between ammonia w.r.t Forced Expiratory Volume in 1 s (FEV1) (r = 0.74), Forced Vital Capacity (FVC) (r = 0.61) and Forced Expiratory Flow (FEF) (r = 0.63) and hydrogen sulfide w.r.t FEV1 (r = 0.54), FVC (r = 0.41) and FEF (r = 0.37). Whereas, weak correlation was found for acetone and alcohol w.r.t FEV1, FVC and PEF. Therefore, the level of ammonia and hydrogen sulfide are useful breath markers for detection of obstructive lung disease.

Portable spirometer using pressure-volume method with Bluetooth integration to Android smartphone

“…From this view, the data transmission was effective when the distance between the measuring system and the Android device was up to 10 meters without obstacles as found also in [38]. This result shows that HC-05 module is more suitable for this portable spirometer, instead of using a local liquid crystal display (LCD) or universal serial bus (USB) connection as in [20], [22]. It can provide energy-efficient short-range wireless data transmission with good throughput between mobile phones and many biomedical devices [39], [40], such as in a portable vital sign monitoring system [41], low-cost portable electrocardiogram (ECG) monitoring systems [38], [42]- [44], and an electroencephalogram (EEG)-controlled system for disabled and elderly people [45].…”

“…The MEMS flow sensors have been widely used in biomedical applications to measure air flow, especially respiratory flow [16]- [18]. Meanwhile, a device has been developed to measure the other respiratory values, such as forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) and forced vital capacity (FVC) [19], and level of hydrogen sulfide, ammonia, acetone and alcohol in patients' exhaled breath [20]. Other studies have implemented the spirometer to detect asthma symptoms and COPDs providing effective treatment for the patients [21]- [23].…”

Design and Fabrication of a Gas Sensor Based on a Polypyrrole/Silver Nanoparticle Film for the Detection of Ammonia in Exhaled Breath of COVID-19 Patients Suffering from Acute Kidney Injury

“…Moreover, NH 3 concentration is an important factor in chronic lung diseases such as asthma. In 2022, Shahzad and co-workers measured the concentration of NH 3 in the EB of obstructive lung patients and healthy subjects . The obtained results showed a decrease in NH 3 concentration from 103.49 ppb for healthy subjects to 68.83 ppb for obstructive lung patients.…”

Exhaled Biomarkers for Point-of-Care Diagnosis: Recent Advances and New Challenges in Breathomics

“…One study showed that it was higher in COPD patients without sputum eosinophilia [ 192 ]. Exhaled sulfide was lower in COPD patients compared to healthy subjects and correlated with airway obstruction in another study [ 193 ]. Other authors found that exhaled H 2 S was correlated with FeNO but not with sputum inflammatory cells in COPD [ 194 ].…”