An Israel-based international team of researchers reports that they have identified unique "breathprints" for 17 diseases. Using the information, they designed a device that screens breath samples to classify and diagnose several types of diseases. ACS Nano published the research results.

Typically, exhaled breath contains carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and small amounts of 100 or more volatile organic compounds. The team in Israel set out to identify the particular mix of components that signify multiple diseases and to build a “disease identification breathalyzer.”

Breathalyzer in use. Credit: Wikimedia CommonsThe diagnostic device consists of an artificially intelligent nanoscale array based on molecularly modified gold nanoparticles and a random network of single-walled carbon nanotubes for noninvasive diagnosis and classification of a number of diseases from exhaled breath.

Researchers tested 1,404 people who had either known disease conditions, including Parkinson’s and kidney cancers, or were known to be healthy. The device achieved 86% accuracy in detecting and identifying diseases. Since each disease included in the study has a unique breathprint, the presence of one disease does not screen out another one. Different proportions of 13 components indicated which disease, if any, was present.

The research team hopes their work will lead to development of reliable, inexpensive, miniaturized tools for simple disease screening and diagnosis.