At-Home Breath Data Collection for Signatures of Type 2 Diabetes: A Pilot Clinical Study

This study investigates the potential of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in breath as non-invasive biomarkers for monitoring blood glucose levels in individuals with Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). A pilot clinical study was conducted to explore the correlation between VOCs and blood glucose levels in six T2DM patients. Participants used a custom-developed sensor device to collect breath data at home, alongside finger-stick blood glucose readings. Breath data were transmitted to a cloud database, while blood glucose readings were recorded on paper charts. The sensor data from the device and the blood glucose readings from the charts were consolidated to create the study dataset. Support vector machine and random forest models were employed to analyze the dataset, which achieved accuracies of 85% and 82%, respectively. The results demonstrate the feasibility of at-home breath sensor data collection for clinical studies and suggest its potential as a viable alternative to traditional invasive glucose monitoring methods. Future studies will expand the dataset to include more participants and additional clinical variables to enhance model performance and predictive power. This research highlights the promise of non-invasive breath analysis for glucose monitoring, which could improve patient compliance and diabetes management.