Abstract
The development of new techniques for breath analysis searching for objective biomarkers of oxidative stress showed promise in non-invasive disclosing health information of the well-being of a person. Although numerous biomarkers have been identified so far using breath analysis, very little is known about their origin if they are metabolic or providing from mouth contamination. For the introduction of breath tests into clinical practice, standardization of sample collection needs to be taken into account. Breath analysis has been performed using laser photoacoustic spectroscopy to evaluate exhaled breath by mouth and nose before and after brushing with toothpaste/baking soda in order to identify the important endogenous biomarkers without contaminant sources. As a known biomarker of oxidative stress in the human body, it is important to accurately assess ethylene from exhaled air. Differences in the concentrations of exhaled ethylene are observed after using toothpaste and baking soda. The levels of ethylene are lower for nose breathing compared with mouth breathing. However, the differences are not significant proving that ethylene is generally endogenous but may still exist some contamination, depending of the oral hygiene of each person. These results may lead to a procedure, whereby subjects should be instructed to use toothpaste before each breath test sampling, to avoid the possibility of contamination of endogenous biomarkers.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Pleil JD, Stiegel MA, Risby TH (2013) Clinical breath analysis: discriminating between human endogenous compounds and exogenous (environmental) chemical confounders. J Breath Res 7(1):017107. https://doi.org/10.1088/17527155/7/1/017107
Phillips M, Herrera J, Krishnan S, Zain M, Greenberg J, Cataneo RN (1999) Variation in volatile organic compounds in the breath of normal humans. J Chromatogr B Biomed Sci Appl 729:75–88
Schnabel R, Fijten R, Smolinska A, Dallinga J, Boumans M-L, Stobberingh E, Boots A, Roekaerts P, Bergmans D, van Schooten FJ (2015) Analysis of volatile organic compounds in exhaled breath to diagnose ventilator-associated pneumonia. Sci Rep 5: Article number 17179. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep17179
Manolis A (1983) The diagnostic potential of breath analysis. Clin Chem 29:5–15
Smit D, Turner C, Spanel P (2007) Volatile metabolites in the exhaled breath of healthy volunteers: their levels and distributions. J Breath Res 1:014004 (12pp)
Shirasu M, Touhara K (2011) The scent of desease:volatile organic compounds of the human body related to disease and disorder. J Biochem 150(3):257–266
Palmer Jr RJ (2011) Composition and development of oral bacterial communities. Periodontol 2000 64(1). https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0757.2012.00453.x
Gomes-Filho IS, Passos JS, Seixas da Cruz S (2010) Respiratory disease and the role of oral bacteria. J Oral Microbiol 2. https://doi.org/10.3402/jom.v2i0.5811
Haick H, Broza YY, Mochalski P, Ruzsanyi V, Amann A (2014) Assessment, origin, and implementation of breath volatile cancer markers. Chem Soc Rev 43(5):1423–1429
Gouma P, Stanacevic M (2011) Selective nanosensor array microsystem for exhaled breath analysis. Procedia Eng 25:1557–1560. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2011.12.385
IARC ethylene (1994) IARC scientific publications no. 60. IARC, Lyon, pp 45–71
Törnqvist M, Kautiainen A, Gatz RN, Ehrenberg L (1988) Hemoglobin adducts in animals exposed to gasoline and diesel exhausts 1. Alkenes J Appl Toxicol 8:159–170
Törnqvist M, Gustafsson B, Kautiainen A, Harms-Ringdahl M, Granath F, Ehrenberg L (1989) Unsaturated lipids and intestinal bacteria as sources of endogenous production of ethene and ethylene oxide. Carcinogenesis 10:39–41
Törnqvist M (1989) Search for unknown adducts: increase of sensitivity through preselection by biochemical parameters. In: Bartsch H, Hemminki K, O'Neill IK (eds) Methods for detecting DNA damaging agents in humans: applications in cancer epidemiology and prevention. IARC Scientific Publications no. 89. IARC, Lyon, pp 378–383
Popa C, Bratu AM, Cernat R, Dutu DCA, Banita S, Dumitras DC (2011) Spectroscopic studies of ethylene and ammonia as biomarkers at patients with different medical disorders. U P B Sci Bull Ser A 73:167–174
Petrus M, Bratu AM, Popa C (2017) Spectroscopic analysis of breath ethylene and oxidative stress relation with glycaemic status in type 2 diabetes. Opt Quant Electron 49(2). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11082-016-0837-y
Popa C, Bratu AM, Matei C, Cernat R, Popescu A, Dumitras DC (2011) Qualitative and quantitative determination of human biomarkers by laser photoacoustic spectroscopy methods. Laser Phys 21:1336–1342
Dumitras DC, Dutu DC, Matei C, Magureanu AM, Petrus M, Popa C, Patachia M (2008) Measurements of ethylene concentrations by laser photoacoustic techniques with applications at breath analyses. Rom Rep Phys 60:593–602
Dumitras DC, Dutu DC, Matei C, Magureanu AM, Petrus M, Popa C (2007) Laser photoacoustic spectroscopy: principals, instrumentation and characterization. J Optoelectron Adv Mater 9:3655–3701
Dumitras DC, Banita S, Bratu AM, Cernat R, Dutu DCA, Matei C, Patachia M, Petrus M, Popa C (2010) Ultrasensitive CO2 laser photoacoustic system. J Infrared Phys Technol 53:308–314
Petrus M, Bratu AM, Popa C (2016) The response of human body at oxidative stress in subjects with type 2 diabets: ammonia breath analysis by laser photoacoustic spectroscopy. Rev Roum Chim 61(2):89–95
Popa C (2016) Breathing disorders using photoacoustics gas analyzer. J Med Imaging Health Inform 6:1893–1895
Cernat R, Matei C, Bratu AM, Dutu DC, Patachia M, Petrus M, Banita S, Dumitras DC (2010) Laser photoacoustic spectroscopy method for measurements of trace gas concentration from human breath. Rom Rep Phys 62:610–616
Bratu AM, Popa C, Matei C, Banita S, Dutu DCA, Dumitras DC (2011) Removal of interfering gases in breath biomarker measurements. J Optoelectron Adv Mater 13:1045–1050
Popa C, Patachia M, Banita S, Dumitras DC (2013) Exercition in Kangoo Jumps aerobic: evaluation and interpretation using spectroscopic techniques determinations. J Spectrosc Article ID 602434. https://doi.org/10.1155/2013/602434
Liu W, Wang L, Li L, Liu J, Liu FQ, Wang Z (2011) Fast simultaneous measurement of multi-gases using quantum cascade laser photoacoustic spectroscopy. Appl Phys B 103(3):743
Li J, Gao X, Fang L, Zhang W, Cha H (2007) Resonant photoacoustic detection of trace gas with DFB diode laser. Opt Laser Technol 39(6):1144
King J, Mochalski P, Kupferthaler A, Unterkofler K, Filipiak W, Teschl S, Teschl G, Hinterhuber H, Amann A (2010) Dynamic profiles of volatile organic compounds in exhaled breath as determined by a coupled PTR-MS/GC-MS study. Physiol Meas 31:1169–1184
King J, Mochalski P, Unterkofler K, Teschl G, Klieber M, Stein M, Amann A, Baumann M (2012) Breath isoprene: muscle dystrophy patients support the concept of a pool of isoprenein the periphery of the human body. Biochem Biophys Res Commun 423:526–530
Kilian M, Chapple ILC, Hannig M, Marsh PD, Meuric V, Pedersen AML, Tonetti MS, Wade WG, Zaura E (2016) The oral microbiome – an update for oral healthcare professionals. Br Dent J 221:657–666
Funding
This work was supported by a grant of the Ministry of National Education and Scientific Research, RDI Program for Space Technology and Advanced Research—STAR, project number 153.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Informed consent
For this research, I have the consent of the participants. The time and effort provided by the volunteers is greatly appreciated.
Conflict of interest
The author declares that she has no conflict of interest.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Bratu, A.M. Spectroscopic study of breath ethylene via the mouth and nose. Lasers Med Sci 34, 773–778 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10103-018-2661-z
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10103-018-2661-z