The Potential of Exhaled Breath Analysis for Alzheimer's Disease Monitoring (mini review)

Introduction-Alzheimer's disease is a neurodegenerative disease and the main type of dementia. It has multifactorial pathogenesis and is characterized by delayed diagnosis. Both affect the management. Research on various specimens and metabolic products of the processes involved in its development is ongoing, with the aim of understanding its pathomechanisms. A promising medium that is believed to help in this regard is exhaled breath.Methods-We reviewed the published literature on exhaled breath and its association with Alzheimer's disease. Results-Alterations in the exhaled breath profile of patients with Alzheimer's disease compared to healthy individuals were observed. There are two studies that reported differences in the concentrations of specific volatile organic compounds in exhaled breath between patients with Alzheimer's disease and healthy individuals. Moreover, discrimination between different stages of Alzheimer's disease was achieved by studying the profile of the exhaled breath. It seems that Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases also have different exhaled breath profiles. It is worth mentioning that various methods and equipment were used in the studies, limiting the direct comparison of the results. Conclusion-It seems that the study of the exhaled breath can contribute to the diagnosis, discrimination, and monitoring of Alzheimer's disease. Further research with larger scales and more common protocols is needed.