Breath indeed carries significant information about a disease: Potential biomarkers of cerebral palsy

Abstract

Objective and reliable noninvasive medical diagnostics of a large variety of diseases is still a dream. As a step in the direction of realization, a spectroscopic breath study of cerebral palsy (CP) was performed. Principal component analysis revealed data clustering for a healthy group and CP individuals was observed, with a P-value below 10 −5. Learning algorithms resulted in 91% accuracy in distinguishing the groups. With the help of manual analysis of absorption spectral features of breath samples, two volatile organic compounds were identified that demonstrate significant deviations in the groups. These represent two esters of propionic acid (PPAE). A transportation scheme was hypothesized that links the gut where propionic acid (PPA) and PPAE are produced, the brain of CP patients, through which PPA and PPAE transmit, and the lungs where PPAE releases. The results show a possibility to detect one more brain-related disorder via breath, in this case CP.

Towards reliable diagnostics of prostate cancer via breath

“…metabolites) for different diseases, but the entire set of dimensions and the position of a certain disease in it (i.e., its unique island) is expected to be special. As an illustration, propionates that we revealed for cerebral palsy 20 and cancers of the urogenital system in this study, could serve as an example of such an overlap in one dimension.…”

“…Post-processing of the experimental spectra was based on several steps described previously 12 , 20 , 35 . The first step included the baseline correction of the experimental absorption spectrum in the range 500–4000 cm −1 .…”

“…Using laser-free broadband mid-infrared Fourier-transform spectroscopy applied to breath, we recently identified derivatives of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) in the breath of patients with cerebral palsy. These metabolites allowed us to detect the disease diagnosis’s detection accuracy > 90% 20 . It was the first demonstration of the power of gas spectroscopy applied to complex movement disorder related to the brain damage.…”

Monitoring the Reaction of the Body State to Antibiotic Treatment against Helicobacter pylori via Infrared Spectroscopy: A Case Study

“…Identification of molecules was done according to the three-step procedure developed in [ 26 , 31 ], with the help of theoretical hints developed in [ 32 ]. The hints make a link between a 3D molecular structure and the shape of the corresponding absorption spectral structure.…”

“…Ethical review and approval were waived for this study, because the necessary data were collected in frame of other studies [ 20 , 30 , 31 ]. They mostly included the data of a longitudinal study used in Figure 1 and Figure 2 .…”