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Updated: Apr 25, 2026
Characterizing Bacterial Volatiles using Secondary Electrospray Ionization Mass Spectrometry SESI-MS
Published on: June 8, 2011
Volatile organic compounds during inflammation and sepsis in rats: a potential breath test using ion-mobility
Tobias Fink1, Alexander Wolf, Felix Maurer
1From the Department of Anesthesiology, Intensive Care, and Pain Therapy, Saarland University Medical Center, Homburg (Saar), Germany (T.F., A.W., F.M., F.W.A., N.H., B.W., T.V., S.K.); Computational Systems Biology Group, Max Planck Institute for Informatics, Saarbrücken, Germany (A.C.H.); B&S Analytik, BioMedicalCenter, Dortmund, Germany (B.B., J.I.B.); Faculty of Applied Chemistry, Reutlingen University, Reutlingen, Germany (J.I.B.); and Department of Outcomes Research, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio (D.I.S.).
Background:
Multicapillary column ion-mobility spectrometry (MCC-IMS) may identify volatile components in exhaled gas. The authors therefore used MCC-IMS to evaluate exhaled gas in a rat model of sepsis, inflammation, and hemorrhagic shock.
Methods:
Male Sprague-Dawley rats were anesthetized and ventilated via tracheostomy for 10 h or until death. Sepsis was induced by cecal ligation and incision in 10 rats; a sham operation was performed in 10 others. In 10 other rats, endotoxemia was induced by intravenous administration of 10 mg/kg lipopolysaccharide. In a final 10 rats, hemorrhagic shock was induced to a mean arterial pressure of 35 ± 5 mmHg. Exhaled gas was analyzed with MCC-IMS, and volatile compounds were identified using the BS-MCC/IMS-analytes database (Version 1209; B&S Analytik, Dortmund, Germany).
Results:
All sham animals survived the observation period, whereas mean survival time was 7.9 h in the septic animals, 9.1 h in endotoxemic animals, and 2.5 h in hemorrhagic shock. Volatile compounds showed statistically significant differences in septic and endotoxemic rats compared with sham rats for 3-pentanone and acetone. Endotoxic rats differed significantly from sham for 1-propanol, butanal, acetophenone, 1,2-butandiol, and 2-hexanone. Statistically significant differences were observed between septic and endotoxemic rats for butanal, 3-pentanone, and 2-hexanone. 2-Hexanone differed from all other groups in the rats with shock.
Conclusions:
Breath analysis of expired organic compounds differed significantly in septic, inflammation, and sham rats. MCC-IMS of exhaled breath deserves additional study as a noninvasive approach for distinguishing sepsis from inflammation.
