Detection of Disease-Specific Volatile Organic Compounds Using Infrared Spectroscopy †

Abstract

Many life-threatening diseases at an early stage remain unrecognized due to a lack of pronounced symptoms. It is also accepted that the early detection of disease is a key ingredient for saving many lives. Unfortunately, in most of the cases, diagnostics implies an invasive sample collection, being problematic at the asymptomatic stage. Infrared spectroscopy of breath offers reliable noninvasive diagnostics at every stage and has already been tested for several diseases. This approach offers not only the detection of specific metabolites, but also the analysis of their imbalance and transportation. In this article, the power of infrared spectroscopy is demonstrated for diabetes, cerebral palsy, acute gastritis caused by bacterial infection, and prostate cancer.