PHOTOACOUSTIC BREATH ANALYSER FOR THE DIAGNOSIS OF ASTHMA
NIDHEESH V.R1, ASWINI KUMAR MOHAPATRA2, RJAESH NAYAK1, UNNIKRISHNAN V.K.1, RAJEEVKUMARSINHA1, VASUDEVAN BASKARAN KARTHA1 AND SANTHOSH CHIDANGIL1
1Centre of Excellence for Biophotonics, Department of Atomic and Molecular Physics, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, Karnataka, India-576104 2Department of Respiratory and Pulmonary Medicine, Kasturba Medical College, Manipal, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, Karnataka, India-576104 Corresponding author: santhosh.cls@manipal.edu Presenting author: nidheeshvr1995@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
Breath analysis is getting important for the diagnosis of lung-related diseases due to the possibility of volatile organic compounds (VOC) as a biomarker for different diseases and the technique is non-invasive. Photoacoustic spectroscopy (PAS) is a well-known absorption method, which can be implemented for the study of VOCs. In the PAS technique, an increase in acoustic intensity generated from the PA cell by the absorption of light by the VOC is measured. We have designed and assembled a Photoacoustic breath analyser for the study of VOCs. The device has got the detection limit in ppb/ppm for different VOCs such as acetone, acetonitrile, benzene and toluene. A preliminary study on exhaled breath samples from asthma and normal subjects has been performed using the device. Principal component analysis has been carried out to find out the classification of asthma and normal samples. Noticeable differences observed in the PA signals of normal and asthma breath samples, due to the VOC biomarkers present in the asthma samples. Nitric oxide is the breath biomarker that has been used for the diagnosis of asthma in hospitals. This study demonstrates that the application of Photoacoustic breath analyser to study exhaled breath samples for the diagnosis of asthma. Experiment is in progressto analyse the breath samples of different lung diseases.