Monitoring wound healing by odour

Abstract

A pilot study using electronic aroma detection was performed over a six-month period to assess the aroma of chronic non-healing venous leg ulcers and the effect of appropriate antibiotic therapy on modification of the aroma. Deep infection with pathogenic organisms was found on biopsy culture in 13 out of 15 patients. Odour analysis was performed at weekly intervals on the ulcer dressings using an AromaScan instrument. Data points on the aroma maps moved from their pre-treatment presentation. Alterations in aroma data correlated well with the progress of the ulcers. Aroma analysis is shown to be a potential tool in monitoring the progress towards healing of chronic venous ulcers.

Clinical Application of Volatile Organic Compound Analysis for Detecting Infectious Diseases

“…Principal component analysis showed that volatile profiles identified from dressings of infected wounds may be used to discriminate infected from uninfected patients (128). In particular, reportedly, patterns of volatiles released from dressings of chronic wounds can be used to monitor the progress of wound healing (129). A recent study emphasized the usefulness of a suitable sampling procedure regarding wounds and showed that multivariate data analysis of VOC profiles obtained by GC-MS could discriminate infected chronic wounds from healthy skin (130).…”

Featuring of bacterial contamination of wounds by dynamic response of SnO2 gas sensor array

“…Artificial olfaction system (Electronic Nose, EN) was recently suggested as a promising technology for medical diagnosis/prognosis and even continuous monitoring of the patient condition [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17]. The EN systems are based on gas sensitive structures that are not selective to particular gas and, in general, any of such sensors responds to various gases.…”

“…Based on the understanding of principles of the EN functioning it was commonly accepted that the application of the EN technology for direct detection of the infectious agents is doubtful. In spite of this it was demonstrated in various experiments [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17] that an infection can be correctly recognized by an EN. These promising results are explained by well-known fact that bacteria and fungi produce airborne contamination in the form of conidia (spores), volatile organic compounds and mycotoxins.…”

“…There were attempts to elucidate the potential role of commercial EN systems in bacterial detection in venous ulceration [5,6] and in burns management [7]. The results from these studies indicate that the EN data correlate with presence of different groups of bacteria and even reveals the changes produced by appropriate antibiotic therapy.…”

Diagnosis of Bacteriuria by Detection of Volatile Organic Compounds in Urine Using an Automated Headspace Analyzer with Multiple Conducting Polymer Sensors

“…When used in multiple arrays and combined with computer pattern analysis of the output data, these instruments can discriminate complex volatile mixtures (14), and they have been used for the diagnosis of a variety of clinical infections. Parry et al (12,13) could identify the presence of ␤-hemolytic streptococci by analyzing contact dressings from chronic leg ulcers; Greenwood et al (5) showed that the pattern of volatile compounds released from dressings of infected chronic wounds could be used to monitor the progress of wound healing; Chandiok et al (1) analyzed volatile compounds from high vaginal swabs and, in a small group of patients, were able to distinguish between patients with and without bacterial vaginosis.…”