[Characteristic analysis of volatile organic compounds in biological samples of coal workers' pneumoconiosis...

Objective: To employ gas chromatography-ion mobility spectrometry (GC-IMS) technology for the detection of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and their associated metabolic pathways in patients with coal worker pneumoconiosis and healthy individuals, thereby identifying potential biomarkers for the disease. Methods: In August 2024, 35 coal worker pneumoconiosis patients aged 18-80 years who underwent alveolar lavage at the Beidaihe Rehabilitation Hospital of the Ministry of Emergency Management between June and July 2024 were selected as the case group, while 20 healthy males without major diseases or dust exposure history served as the control group. Exhaled breath, blood, and urine samples were collected from both groups and analyzed using GC-IMS for qualitative and quantitative VOC identification. Differential VOCs were identified through independent-sample t-tests, fold change analysis, orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA), and rank-sum tests, with differential metabolic pathways analyzed using the Metabo Analyst platform. Results: Among the 35 patients, 23 were in Stage I (65.7%), 7 in Stage II (20.0%), and 5 in Stage III (14.3%), with both groups consisting exclusively of males. Exhaled breath samples contained 25 distinct VOCs, urine samples 110, and blood samples 64. Four differential VOCs were identified in exhaled breath samples, while 16 were detected in urine samples. No differential compounds were identified in blood samples. Through metabolomic analysis, five significantly different metabolic pathways were identified, from which six key differential metabolites were selected as potential biomarkers. Conclusion: GC-IMS technology enables differentiation between the VOC profiles of healthy individuals and patients with coal worker pneumoconiosis, with urine samples demonstrating particularly outstanding diagnostic value. The differential VOCs and metabolic pathways identified in this study can serve as a reference for early detection of coal worker pneumoconiosis.