Bad Breath

A new laser technique could enable doctors to detect certain diseases, such as lung cancer or asthma, simply by analyzing a patient's breath. Altoids, you can no longer hide diabetes!

JILA, a joint institute of the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the University of Colorado at Boulder, led the research, and say companies and investors have already expressed interest in developing the device for routine use in doctor's offices.

The advantages of the laser technique — known as optical frequency comb spectroscopy — is that it would provide a painless and non-invasive way of detecting certain diseases. In addition, it could enable physicians to detect some conditions earlier when they may be more easily treated.

With each breath, we exhale a variety of chemicals. The predominant compounds are carbon dioxide and oxygen, but a typical exhalation will also contain more than a thousand other chemicals in very tiny amounts, some of which can indicate disease. For example, ammonia could be a sign of kidney failure, while nitric oxide can indicate asthma...but an excess of sulfur would indicate you ate a chili dog.

Breath analysis systems have been around for several years, but a common problem with previous methods is they could only detect one or a few types of compounds in the breath, which doesn't provide enough information to determine if a person has a specific disease because they could have elevated levels of a single compound for other reasons.

In the study, the device reliably detected higher levels of carbon monoxide in the breath of a smoker compared to a non-smoking participant. The device also distinguished ammonia — an indicator of kidney failure — from water, which can be a tricky issue because of the similarity of the compounds. The technique would be most useful for detecting lung problems, such as lung cancer and asthma, because these conditions create changes in the body that show up in the breath.

To use the device, a person breathes into a tube into which a laser is shining. Mirrors positioned around the tube reflect the laser signal to enhance detection of compounds. The laser signal bounces off the different chemicals in the breath sample, and the device is able to detect the unique light signals of specific compounds. The results are nearly instantaneous, so there's no need to wait for an analysis to be processed, as there is with a blood test.

The system may have other applications as well. Rhe Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico said they're interested in developing the technique for use in airport security screenings to detect explosives or nuclear material in the ambient air. I guess if terrorist ate part of their dirty bomb that would help, right? Jet Propulsion Laboratory is considering whether it could be used on remote locations, such as the surface of Mars, to detect the composition of the air in these environments. And to see if Martians have fresh, kissible breath.