A simple breath test for tuberculosis using ion mobility: A pilot study

Tuberculosis (TB) remains one of the world's major health burdens with 9.6 million new infections globally. Though considerable progress has been made in reduction of TB incidence and mortality, there is a continuous need for lower cost, simpler and more robust means of diagnosis. One method that may fulfil these requirements is in the area of breath analysis. In this study we analysed the breath of 21 patients with pulmonary or extra-pulmonary TB, recruited from a UK teaching hospital (University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire) before or within 1 week of commencing treatment for TB. TB diagnosis was confirmed by reference tests (mycobacterial culture), histology or radiology. 19 controls were recruited to calculate specificity; these patients were all interferon-gamma release assay negative (T.SPOT(®).TB, Oxford Immunotec Ltd.). Whole breath samples were collected with subsequent chemical analysis undertaken by Ion Mobility Spectrometry. Our results produced a sensitivity of 81% and a specificity of 79% for all cases of TB (pulmonary and extra-pulmonary). Though lower than other studies analysing pulmonary TB alone, we believe that this technique shows promise, and a higher sensitivity could be achieved by further improving our sample capture methodology.