Breath-based non-invasive diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease: a pilot study

作者：Akira Tiele, Alfian Wicaksono, Emma Daulton, Emmanuel Ifeachor, Victoria Eyre, Sophie Clarke, Leanne Timings, Stephen Pearson, James A. Covington, Xinzhong Li · 发表于：Journal of Breath Research · 年份：2019 · DOI：10.1088/1752-7163/ab6016 · 被引用次数：73 · 研究领域：Advanced Chemical Sensor Technologies、Metabolomics and Mass Spectrometry Studies、Biochemical Analysis and Sensing Techniques

Early detection of Alzheimer's disease (AD) will help researchers to better understand the disease and develop improved treatments. Recent developments have thus focused on identifying biomarkers for mild cognitive impairment due to AD (MCI) and AD during the preclinical phase. The aim of this pilot study is to determine whether exhaled volatile organic compounds (VOCs) can be used as a non-invasive method to distinguish controls from MCI, controls from AD and to determine whether there are differences between MCI and AD. The study used gas chromatography-ion mobility spectrometry (GC-IMS) techniques. Confounding factors, such as age, smoking habits, gender and alcohol consumption are investigated to demonstrate the efficacy of results. One hundred subjects were recruited including 50 controls, 25 AD and 25 MCI patients. The subject cohort was age- and gender-matched to minimise bias. Breath samples were analysed using a commercial GC-IMS instrument (G.A.S. BreathSpec, Dortmund, Germany). Data analysis indicates that the GC-IMS signal was consistently able to separate between diagnostic groups [AUC ± 95%, sensitivity, specificity], controls versus MCI: [0.77 (0.64-0.90), 0.68, 0.80], controls versus AD: [0.83 (0.72-0.94), 0.60, 0.96], and MCI versus AD: [0.70 (0.55-0.85), 0.60, 0.84]. VOC analysis indicates that six compounds play a crucial role in distinguishing between diagnostic groups. Analysis of possible confounding factors indicate that gender, age, smoking habits and ...