A new breath test

Meuse-Rhine Journal[LIFE-SCI: Maastricht, November 2]
This is a publication about making diagnoses of the basis of exhaled breath. The details of the publication and authors are available by clicking the link below.

In the past doctors would smell a patient’s exhaled breath in order to ascertain whether the patient was suffering from hepatitis. At that time there would usually be a fishy smell if the patient was suffering from this condition, due to the fact that the liver produces sulfur in patients suffering from hepatitis. Labradors can differentiate between patients suffering from lung cancer and healthy people on the basis of their exhaled breath alone. Diagnosing COPD, asthma or chronic gastroenteritis on the basis of exhaled breath is, accordingly, something that makes sense. After all, ‘breathe out into this bag please’ sound a little more pleasant than an ‘internal examination of the intestines, during which small fragments of tissue will be removed’. Researchers in Maastricht are close to completing this type of ‘breath test’ such as this.

Source: http://www.meuse-rhine-journal.com/html/Lif_20091102101829.html

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