Exhaled breath condensate in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: methodological challenges and clinical application

Abstract

easily be obtained during tidal breathing even in patients with severe airflow limitation. In the past two decades numerous disease markers have been identified in EBC of patients with COPD; 1-5 however, finding the role for this sampling technique in the clinical practice is still underway.As a reflection of the interest from the research and clinical communities, an international task force report on EBC was endorsed by the European Respiratory Society and the American Thoracic Society in 2005, and a technical standard c hronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is associated with airway inflammation, which leads to small airways disease and parenchymal destruction. Assessing airway inflammation potentially contributes to disease monitoring and facilitate personalized therapy. Inflammatory markers can be measured in airway samples including induced sputum and exhaled breath, which are collected semi-or non-invasively, therefore imposing minimal risk and discomfort to patients. Exhaled breath condensate (EBC) can

Applications of Exhaled Breath Condensate Analysis for Drug Monitoring and Bioequivalence Study of Inhaled Drugs

“…Recent investigations reveal the potential applications of EBC analysis in various longitudinal studies (3). Measuring pediatric asthma grades and evaluating an infant's EBC instead of blood or urine sampling are some of its clinical applications (4,5). Besides, it can be used to assess the multi markers in respiratory diseases, such as cytokines, leukotrienes, prostaglandins, adenosine, hydrogen peroxide, nitric oxide-derived products, and hydrogen ions.…”

An Efficient Low‐Cost Device for Sampling Exhaled Breath Condensate EBC

“…[ 2 ] As EBC is collected from the respiratory fluid of the lungs, [ 13 ] it is a sample type from which valuable information is expected in case of chronic respiratory diseases. [ 14 ] Often, the exacerbation of symptoms is linked to well‐known environmental factors of the human exposome concept, such as air pollution. These diseases are responsible for approximately 7 million deaths per year worldwide.…”