In a recent report by The Wall Street Journal,
doctors outline the technology advancements of detecting chemical compound in
our breath.
“Anything you can have a blood test for, there is potentially a
breath test for, as long as there is a volatile component,” says Raed A.
Dweik of the pulmonary vascular program at Cleveland Clinic’s Lerner Research
Institute
-Diabetes
A fruity breath
odor known as ketoacidosis is a natural way to indicate serious diabetic
problems in someone.
This breath odor is
the result of a build-up of ketones in the body, which is the product of using
fat as a source of energy instead of sugar.
Diabetics suffer
from little to no insulin to be able to break down sugars in the body, which
leads the body to turn to fat. Detecting this off-putting breath odor could
help detect serious issues related to diabetes in a person.
-Lung Cancer
It’s been proven
that some animals are able to sniff out specific diseases, such as diabetes.
Scientists are now trying to develop an electronic nose for this very purpose.
The idea behind the
technology would be to separate different profiles of volatile organic
compounds (VOCs), as stated in a 2013 press release.
Researches are not yet able to
accurately identify which VOCs link to which diseases, but there are
significant studies that suggest this electronic nose can detect lung cancer
and rule out any other lung condition.
Lead author of the press release
states, “We have shown
that it is possible to use breath tests to correctly identify lung cancer with
a high sensitivity rate. The results of our study take us one step further to
understand this important new technology.”
-Kidney
Failure
Our kidneys remove waste from our
blood, so if they fail our body can no longer rid the toxins on their own. This
will result in a build-up of waste which is then released through our
respiratory system.
It’s been widely researched and known
that those who suffer from chronic kidney failure also suffer from urine-like,
fishy, ammonia odor breath.
-Heart
Failure
A 2012 study points to a non-invasive
alternative to heart failure diagnosis tests.
They began by using heart patients as
controls for a test to detect kidney failure in patient’s breath. What they
found was that the control subjects had very unique breath prints that may be
used to detect heart failure.