An Artificial Nose Can Smell Out Asthma

Robert W. Griffith, MD

The artificial nose, whimsically called the Cyranose , is adept at sniffing out bombs, and optimizing coffee roasting. Now it's turning its expertise to medicinal diagnoses (no pun intended!). It has already been used with success in detecting tuberculosis bacteria and lung cancer from the volatile gas patterns in expired breath from patients.

A pilot study reported at the American Thoracic Society Meeting was conducted in Holland. The researchers tested the breath of 10 patients with mild asthma, 10 with severe asthma, 10 young healthy controls, and 10 older controls. They had 100% success in differentiating mild asthma from young controls, 90% success in distinguishing severe asthma from older controls, and 90% to 95% validation in reproducibility distinguishing severe asthma from controls.

This finding is more important than it might at first seem. The diagnosis of asthma is not always easy, as there are different types and causes of the disease, and the physical signs are not always constant. A simple test would be a great step forward, according to the moderator of the press conference reporting the findings.

The Cyranose is produced by Smiths Detection, in case you are thinking of investing . . .

Source
HealthandAge Blog

Please take a moment to give us your comments. For questions about Health matters you may check our "Questions & Answers" Portal and Service.