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Updated: May 31, 2026

Breath Collection from Children for Disease Biomarker Discovery
Published on: February 14, 2019
Non-invasive phenotyping using exhaled volatile organic compounds in asthma.
Baharudin Ibrahim1, Maria Basanta, Paul Cadden
1Respiratory Research Group, Faculty of Medical and Human Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester Academic Health Science Centre, Manchester, UK.
Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in breath can identify asthma patients and disease types. This non-invasive breath profiling shows promise for personalized asthma management and diagnosis.
Area of Science:
- Biochemistry
- Pulmonology
- Analytical Chemistry
Background:
- Breath volatile organic compounds (VOCs) offer potential for asthma diagnosis and phenotyping.
- Identifying specific VOC patterns can guide personalized therapeutic strategies for asthma patients.
Purpose of the Study:
- To identify specific breath VOC patterns in asthma patients.
- To correlate VOC patterns with clinically relevant asthma phenotypes.
Main Methods:
- Breath samples analyzed using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.
- Asthma Control Questionnaire, lung function, and sputum cell counts were collected.
- Principal component analysis and logistic regression used to build diagnostic and phenotypic models.
Main Results:
- A 15-VOC model accurately classified asthma patients (86% accuracy).
- Models differentiated asthma phenotypes: eosinophilia (AUROC 0.98), neutrophilia (AUROC 0.90), and uncontrolled asthma (AUROC 0.96).
Conclusions:
- Characteristic breath VOC profiles can distinguish asthma patients from controls.
- VOC profiling can classify asthma based on sputum inflammation and control levels.
- Further validation may enable clinical use of non-invasive breath analysis for asthma.
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