Exhaled Breath Condensate: Technical and Diagnostic Aspects.

Area of Science:

• Respiratory Medicine
• Internal Medicine

Background:

• Exhaled breath condensate (EBC) research has evolved significantly over 30 years.
• EBC analysis is increasingly explored for various respiratory and internal medicine conditions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the 30-year progress of research on exhaled breath condensate (EBC) using a disease-based approach.
• To identify trends and potential clinical applications of EBC analysis.

Main Methods:

• A comprehensive literature search was conducted in PubMed/Medline, ScienceDirect, and Google Scholar.
• Keywords included "exhaled breath condensate (EBC)" and various diseases such as asthma, COPD, lung cancer, and cystic fibrosis.
• Eligible articles were original investigations and reviews published from 1980 to October 2014.

Main Results:

• A total of 12,600 articles were found in Google Scholar, 1807 in ScienceDirect, and 1081 in PubMed/Medline.
• 228 original investigation and review articles were deemed eligible for this study.
• The number of publications shows a rapidly increasing trend over the 30-year period.

Conclusions:

• EBC research is expanding into diverse areas of medicine, indicating growing potential for clinical applications.
• The majority of EBC studies are small-scale, necessitating larger cohort evaluations for robust conclusions.
• Limitations such as poor biomarker reproducibility and lack of reference values hinder current clinical practice adoption of EBC analysis, which remains in its early stages.