Israeli Startup Develops Breath-Based Diagnostic Device with Over 86% Accuracy for 17 Diseases

Many metabolites are generated during the “operation” of our bodies. Although they are merely discarded “waste products,” healthcare professionals can extract information relevant to patients’ health status from them through appropriate detection methods. For instance, blood and urine tests aid in disease diagnosis by analyzing metabolites. Currently, a growing number of scientists are focusing on metabolites present in exhaled breath, suggesting that in the future, we may be able to determine various physiological parameters simply from a patient’s exhaled air.

Recently, a research team composed of scientists from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology invented an instrument,Predicting potential diseases in subjects by sampling exhaled breath.

A Corner of the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology

Researchers state that human exhaled breath contains not only nitrogen, oxygen, and carbon dioxide, but also more than 100 different chemical substances, collectively known as volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The composition and concentration of VOCs in exhaled breath can reflect an individual’s health status. Through experiments, researchers have discovered that at least 17 diseases, including chronic renal failure, hypertension, diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, and eight types of cancer, exhibit corresponding signals in VOC profiles.

Thus, this R&D team from Israel invented this breath-testing device, which can not only diagnose diseases but also predict potential ones.Over the past three years, the research team selected more than 1,400 individuals from 19 hospitals around the world and collected a total of 2,800 respiratory samples. Instrument-based testing revealed that over 800 individuals either had at least one of 17 diseases or were at risk of developing such conditions.

It is understood that the sensors of this device consist of a series of specially prepared gold nanoparticle sensors and sensors based on random networks of single-walled carbon nanotubes. It can collect breath samples from thousands of patients with various diseases and use artificial intelligence software to identify correlations within the data.

R&D personnel stated that test results may vary slightly depending on the subject's age, race, smoking history, and living environment, but the overall test accuracy exceeds 86%., researchers are now seeking ways to reduce the manufacturing costs of the instrument while making it portable.They hope the breath detector will officially enter the market within five years, with a final retail price of around $30.

In fact, as early as 2013, a research study published in PLOS ONE validated this viewpoint.

A research report states that scientists from ETH Zurich and the University Hospital Zurich conducted an experiment in which researchers collected samples of chemicals from volunteers' exhaled breath four times daily and analyzed the composition of compounds in the breath using a mass spectrometer.

Analysis results showed that water vapor and carbon dioxide were present in the exhaled compound samples from each volunteer, while other components varied. Researchers noted elevated levels of a specific chemical component in the breath of one volunteer, who was found to have epilepsy and had been taking antiepileptic medication. Subsequently, researchers conducted breath tests on other patients taking the same medication and detected the same chemical component.

A study conducted by scientists in Zurich aims to detect diseases through exhaled breath, similar to urine or blood tests, and to translate this approach into clinical practice.

Compared with blood and urine tests, the advantage of breath testing is that analyzing exhaled air has the potential to simplify complex laboratory procedures, eliminating the need for invasive needle insertions or other inconvenient measures for patients. Furthermore, this technology reduces some of the side effects associated with medical testing.. In the future, patients may only need to gently blow into a device.