Exhaled Breath Condensate: Pilot Study of the Method and Initial Experience in Healthy Subjects

Analysis of Exhaled breath condensate (EBC) is a re-discovered approach to monitoring the course of the disease and reduce invasive methods of patient investigation. However, the major disadvantage and shortcoming of the EBC is lack of reliable and reproducible standardization of the method. Despite many articles published on EBC, until now there is no clear consensus on whether the analysis of EBC can provide a clue to diagnosis of the diseases. The purpose of this paper is to investigate our own method, to search for possible standardization and to obtain our own initial experience. Thirty healthy volunteers provided the EBC, in which we monitored the density, pH, protein, chloride and urea concentration. Our results show that EBC pH is influenced by smoking, and urea concentrations are affected by the gender of subjects. Age of subjects does not play a role. The smallest coefficient of variation between individual volunteers is for density determination. Current limitations of EBC measurements are the low concentration of many biomarkers. Standardization needs to be specific for each individual biomarker, with focusing on optimal condensate collection. EBC analysis has a potential become diagnostic test, not only for lung diseases.