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For example, people with diabetes may have fruity or sweet-smelling breath. The odor is caused by ketones, which are chemicals produced when the body starts burning fat instead of glucose for energy, a metabolic state known as ketosis.
Dr. “The idea that exhaled breath might hold its diagnostic potential has been around for a while,” Davis said. “There are reports in ancient Greek and also ancient Chinese medical education texts that refer to the use of scent as a way to guide a doctor’s clinical practice.”
Modern technologies can detect more subtle chemical changes, and machine learning algorithms can identify patterns in breath samples taken from people with certain diseases. In recent years, scientists have used these methods to identify unique “breath marks” for humans. lung cancer, liver disease, tuberculosis, asthma, inflammatory bowel disease and other conditions. (Dr. Davis and colleagues have even used VOC profiles to distinguish virus-infected cells. different types of flu.)
Before the COVID-19 outbreak, Breathomix was developing an electronic nose to detect several other respiratory diseases. “We’re training our system, ‘OK, that’s what asthma smells like, that’s what lung cancer smells like,” said Rianne de Vries, the company’s chief technology and science officer. “So it builds a big database and finds patterns in big data.”
Last year the company – and many other researchers in this field – changed direction and began trying to identify a breath mark for Covid-19. For example, during the initial rise of the virus in the spring of 2020, researchers in England and Germany collected breath samples from 98 people who had come to hospitals with respiratory symptoms. (Participants were asked to exhale into a disposable tube; the researchers then used a syringe to take a sample of their breath.)
Of the patients, 31 turned out to be Covid, while the rest were diagnosed with various diagnoses such as asthma, bacterial pneumonia or heart failure. researchers reported. Breath samples from people with Covid-19 had higher levels of aldehydes, compounds and ketones produced when cells or tissues are damaged by inflammation, matching research suggesting the virus could be a virus. damage the pancreas and to cause ketosis.
Covid patients also had lower methanol levels; this could be a sign that the virus is inflaming the gastrointestinal tract or killing the methanol-producing bacteria living there. Combined, these breath changes “give us a Covid-19 signal,” said Dr. Thomas, co-author of the study.
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