Observational Study Using Mass Spectrometric Analysis of Exhaled Volatile Organic Compounds from Patients in Leicester Royal Infirmary Emergency Department

This study is the ‘breath component’ of the study, ‘Multi Modality Monitoring In Emergency Medicine’ (M3EM), run at Leicester Royal Infirmary (LRI), Emergency Department (ED), which sought to bring research grade equipment to the patients’ bedside, to apply cardiovascular monitoring, with breath metabolic monitoring and hyperspectral imaging in concert to aid in patient diagnoses and to achieve a synergy of intersecting techniques providing a complementarity of analysis of patient condition.

It is therefore an observational study which aims to determine whether breath analysis ‘at the bedside’ is a useful diagnostic tool. Its findings will be set in the context of ‘exhaled breath’ studies, instrumental techniques, the current thrust of exhaled breath metabolic profile research and the problems, and limitations of exhaled breath as a diagnostic modality.

After the design and configuration of the Diagnostic Development Unit and the equipment therein, data was taken from controls and a cohort of selected patients with admitting criteria. Moreover, sub studies on Circadian rhythm and phenotyping were run.

The main results of the study show that such an approach is feasible; however, it is not without difficulties due to large inter- and intra- patient variabilities present. Techniques providing greater sensitivity to lower densities of a broader range of metabolic species are also needful.