Breath analysis by optical fiber sensor for the determination of exhaled organic compounds with a view to diagnostics

Abstract

Breath analysis constitutes a promising tool in clinical and analytical fields due to its high potential for non-invasive diagnostics of metabolic disorders and monitoring of disease status. An optical fiber (OF) sensor has been developed for determination of volatile organic compounds (ethane, pentane, heptane, octane, decane, benzene, toluene and styrene) in human breath for clinical diagnosis. The analytical system developed showed a high performance for breath analysis, inferred for the analytical signal intensity and stability, linear range, and detection limits ranging from 0.8 pmol L−1, for heptane, and to 9.5 pmol L−1, for decane. The OF sensor also showed advantageous features of near real-time response and low instrumentation costs, besides showing an analytical performance equivalent to the breath analysis by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS), used as the reference method.