Identification of trace gases in human breath using SIFT-MS

Abstract:
Breath analysis is a frontier field of science and its potential in clinical diagnosis and therapeutic monitoring is now becoming to be realized. Selected ion flow tube mass spectrometry, SIFT-MS, is an analytical technique for real time, on line analysis of the trace gases in ambient air and especially in exhaled breath. Using SIFT-MS instrument we have researched methods for accurate calculation of trace amounts of volatile compounds in humid air and carried out the first surveys in the Czech Republic of concentrations of common breath metabolites showing their ranges and distributions. A major advance was the first measurement of HCN in the breath of a group of volunteers. In order to further extend the range of compounds accessible for SIFT-MS analysis and to significantly improve the limit of detection it is now necessary to research multivariate statistical methods for analyses of multiple sets of mass spectra with overlapping ionic species.....