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Updated: Oct 11, 2025
06:09
Breath Collection from Children for Disease Biomarker Discovery
Published on: February 14, 2019
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Volatile organic breath components and exercise induced bronchoconstriction in asthmatic children
M R van der Kamp1,2, J M M Driessen3, M P van der Schee4
1Department of Paediatrics, Medisch Spectrum Twente, Koningsplein 1, 7512 KZ, Enschede, Netherlands. m.vanderkamp@mst.nl.
Summary
This study explored volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in children's breath to find new biomarkers for exercise-induced bronchoconstriction (EIB) in asthma. Increased levels of specific VOCs (octanal and dodecane/tetradecane) were linked to EIB in children not using corticosteroids.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Pulmonology
- Biochemistry
- Analytical Chemistry
Background:
- Asthma is a common childhood chronic disease, often featuring exercise-induced bronchoconstriction (EIB).
- Diagnosing EIB typically requires time-consuming and resource-intensive pulmonary function laboratory tests.
- Breath volatile organic compounds (VOCs) offer a novel, non-invasive approach to identify asthma-related biomarkers.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the association between breath VOCs and EIB in children with asthma.
- To identify potential VOC biomarkers for non-invasive EIB detection.
Main Methods:
- Breath samples were collected from 46 children (4-14 years old) with asthma prior to an exercise challenge test.
- Analysis focused on identifying molecular features (MFs) in breath samples.
- Comparison was made between children with EIB and those without, including a subgroup of corticosteroid-naïve participants.
Main Results:
- No significant differences in overall MFs were found between EIB and non-EIB groups.
- In corticosteroid-naïve children, EIB was associated with significantly increased levels of MF23 and MF14 in breath samples (p < 0.05).
- Tentative identification of MF23 as dodecane/tetradecane and MF14 as octanal.
Conclusions:
- Increased levels of specific VOCs (octanal and dodecane/tetradecane) are potentially linked to EIB in corticosteroid-naïve children.
- These identified VOCs may serve as candidate biomarkers for the non-invasive diagnosis of EIB in this pediatric population.
- Further research is warranted to validate these findings and explore their clinical utility.
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