Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 27, 2025
Breath Collection from Children for Disease Biomarker Discovery
Published on: February 14, 2019
A comprehensive meta-analysis and systematic review of breath analysis in detection of COVID-19 through Volatile
Grace A Long1, Qian Xu2, Jahnavi Sunkara1
1Department of Anesthesiology & Perioperative Medicine, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY, USA.
Background:
The COVID-19 pandemic had profound global impacts on daily lives, economic stability, and healthcare systems. Diagnosis of COVID-19 infection via RT-PCR was crucial in reducing spread of disease and informing treatment management. While RT-PCR is a key diagnostic test, there is room for improvement in the development of diagnostic criteria. Identification of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in exhaled breath provides a fast, reliable, and economically favorable alternative for disease detection.
Methods:
This meta-analysis analyzed the diagnostic performance of VOC-based breath analysis in detection of COVID-19 infection. A systematic review of twenty-nine papers using the grading criteria from Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) and PRISMA guidelines was conducted.
Results:
The cumulative results showed a sensitivity of 0.92 (95 % CI, 90 %-95 %) and a specificity of 0.90 (95 % CI 87 %-93 %). Subgroup analysis by variant demonstrated strong sensitivity to the original strain compared to the Omicron and Delta variant in detection of SARS-CoV-2 infection. An additional subgroup analysis of detection methods showed eNose technology had the highest sensitivity when compared to GC-MS, GC-IMS, and high sensitivity-MS.
Conclusion:
Overall, these results support the use of breath analysis as a new detection method of COVID-19 infection.
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