'Enose' Device Sniffs Out Asthma

It analyzes breath to discern who has the illness.

By Serena Gordon
HealthDay Reporter
Tuesday, May 22, 2007; 12:00 AM

Copyright © 2007 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.

TUESDAY, May 22 (HealthDay News) -- A device dubbed the electronic nose -- or Enose -- may be able to spot differences in the breath of people with asthma and those without, potentially aiding in diagnosis, Dutch experts say.

However, this "scent detective" is still in the early stages of development and can't yet effectively distinguish between mild and severe asthma, they added.

"Our Enose was able to recognize patients with mild and severe asthma from healthy subjects with promising discrimination rates. However, the discrimination between mild and severe asthma was less powerful," said study author, Dr. Silvano Dragonieri, of Leiden University Medical Center.

If validated by other studies, "Enose technology might be a noninvasive, quick, cheap and easy to perform [diagnostic] method," he added.

Dragonieri presented the findings Monday at the American Thoracic Society international conference in San Francisco.

Currently, asthma is diagnosed based on symptoms and on measures of lung function. The signs of asthma include coughing, shortness of breath, wheezing and a feeling of tightness in the chest, according to asthma and allergy specialist Dr. Clifford Bassett, a clinical instructor at the New York University School of Medicine.

The problem is that other conditions can also mimic those signs and symptoms. Those conditions include bronchitis, sinusitis and even too much exposure to secondhand smoke, so it's not always simple to diagnose the disease.

"Asthma is a common, treatable disease. But asthma can be a life-threatening condition. Any time clinicians can do a better job identifying patients at high risk of asthma, by any means, that's a very important thing," Bassett said of the new device's potential.

The Enose sniffs out asthma through chemical vapor sensors that detect chemicals called volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in exhaled breath.

"A person's breath contains a mixture of thousands of VOCs that may be used as markers of lung disease," said Dragonieri. Devices like Enose have been already used in the food, wine and perfume industries, and they can also detect explosives or toxic chemicals, making the technology useful in the fight against terrorism.