Breath volatolomics for diagnosing chronic rhinosinusitis

Abstract

Yoav Y Broza,1,* Itzhak Braverman,2,* Hossam Haick1 1The Department of Chemical Engineering and Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel; 2The Otolaryngology – Head & Neck Surgery Unit, The Hillel Yaffe Medical Center, The Technion Faculty of Medicine, Hadera, Israel *These authors contributed equally to this work Purpose: Chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) is one of the most common chronic diseases treated by primary care physicians. It is increasingly recognized that CRS and nasal polyposis (NP) comprise several disease processes with diverse causes. Hence, subgroups of sinusitis need to be differentiated so that patients can be screened appropriately and personalized medical treatment provided. Patients and methods: To address this need, we use a cross-reactive nanoarray based on either molecularly modified gold nanoparticles or molecularly modified single-walled carbon nanotubes, combined with pattern recognition for analyzing breath samples. Breath samples were collected from three groups of volunteers (total 71) at the Hillel Yaffe Medical Center: CRS, NP, and control. Results: Nanoarray results discriminated between patients with sinusitis and the control group with 87% sensitivity, 83% specificity, and 85% accuracy. The system also discriminated well between the subpopulations: 1) CRS vs control (76% sensitivity, 90% specificity); 2) CRS vs NP (82% sensitivity, 71% specificity); and 3) NP vs control (71% sensitivity, 90% specificity). Conclusion: This preliminary study shows that a nanoarray-based breath test for screening population for sinusitis-related conditions is feasible. Keywords: volatile organic compound, breath analysis, sensor, chronic sinusitis, nasal polyposis

Keywords

• Volatile organic compounds
• Breath analysis
• Nanomaterial
• Sensors
• Chronic sinusitis
• Nasal polyposis