Besides its primary constituents – nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide and water vapour – exhaled human breath contains over one thousand other compounds at trace levels.
Examples of such biomarkers are outlined below: Acetone - Diabetes mellitus[1] Ammonia - Renal Disease[2] Hydrogen Sulfide - Liver Cirrhosis[3] Methane - Colonic Fermentation[4] Diabetes mellitus is a serious chronic illness that affects how the body uses food, and is a life-threatening human disease if left untreated.
In each case, the ineffective use of glucose as a source of energy leads to the subsequent breakdown of fatty acids to compensate.
This consumption of fatty acids by ketosis, produces acetone which is excreted into the blood, before equilibrating with air in the lungs.
[8] Breathomix BV is providing the latest advancement: BreathBase®,[9] that is able to diagnose lung cancer up to two years earlier than standard clinical care.