An electronic nose distinguishes the exhaled breath condensates of alpha-1-antitrypsin deficiency patients and healthy controls

Background: Exhaled respiratory air contains countless volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The composition of those VOCs varies dependent of different pulmonary diseases. With the customizable electronic nose Cyranose 320 (C-320) it is possible to detect VOCs and distinguish between different VOC patterns. It was the aim of this study to analyze and distinguish the VOCs in exhaled breath condensate (EBC) of patients with α1-antitrypsin deficiency (AATD) and healthy controls (HC). Materials and methods: The EBC was collected from ten HCs and ten AATD patients with the RTube by ten minutes of tidal breathing. 250µl…