Electronic Noses for Well-Being: Breath Analysis and Energy Expenditure

Abstract

The wealth of information concealed in a single human breath has been of interest for many years, promising not only disease detection, but also the monitoring of our general well-being. Recent developments in the fields of nano-sensor arrays and MEMS have enabled once bulky artificial olfactory sensor systems, or so-called “electronic noses”, to become smaller, lower power and portable devices. At the same time, wearable health monitoring devices are now available, although reliable breath sensing equipment is somewhat missing from the market of physical, rather than chemical sensor gadgets. In this article, we report on the unprecedented rise in healthcare problems caused by an increasingly overweight population. We first review recently-developed electronic noses for the detection of diseases by the analysis of basic volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Then, we discuss the primary cause of obesity from over eating and the high calorific content of food. We present the need to measure our individual energy expenditure from our exhaled breath. Finally, we consider the future for handheld or wearable devices to measure energy expenditure; and the potential of these devices to revolutionize healthcare, both at home and in hospitals.

Digital Resilience Biomarkers for Personalized Health Maintenance and Disease Prevention

“…Hydrogen breath testing upon a lactose challenge is a proven technique to determine lactose intolerance, based on defect microbial carbohydrate fermentation. Processes of microbial fermentation produce volatiles such as hydrogen, methane, and hydrogen sulfide, among other volatiles, that can be measured in breath by portable eNose technology (78)(79)(80). Although only starting to emerge, devices for measurement of these compounds in breath are becoming small and consumer grade, enabling their utilization in a daily life (81), holding promise for these biomarkers becoming a digital resilience biomarker for microbiome dynamics.…”

Biomimetic Membranes with Transmembrane Proteins: State-of-the-Art in Transmembrane Protein Applications

“…Transmembrane protein based, or target specific receptor mediated, biosensors have received many attentions from various area such as food quality control [69], medical device [70], and environmental control [71]. To successfully apply highly sensitive TMP based biosensors to practical applications, understanding complex cellular function and increasing stability are the key to success.…”

Hybrid Analytical Platform Based on Field-Asymmetric Ion Mobility Spectrometry, Infrared Sensing, and Luminescence-Based Oxygen Sensing for Exhaled Breath Analysis

“…A common approach enabling online analysis is the use of electronic noses [32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39], i.e., arrays of a variety of sensing principles, such as chemresistors or quartz microbalances coated with–in part conductive–polymer membranes individually responding to different types of molecules. Although such sensor arrays offer portable and rapidly responding breath detection capabilities, specific biomarker identification and inter-device comparability remain problematic [40].…”