Upcoming Research on Breath Analysis May Help Reveal Child’s Risk for Diseases

A simple breath test may reveal a child's risk for diseases in the future, claims a U.S. researcher.

Dr Naim Alkhouri, director of pediatric preventive cardiology and metabolic clinic at Cleveland Clinic's Children Hospital, conducted a research on 66 obese children and 55 lean children. The participants were told to breathe into a special collection bag..

Dr Alkhouri and his colleagues measured the 'volatile organic compounds' (VOC) concentrations. These VOC are found in breath samples. Hundreds of such VOCs are pushed out while breathing and are the spin-offs of metabolic breakdowns that happen in the body. The research team calls this measurement as 'breathprints' of an individual.

"I think breath testing has major advantages, especially in the pediatric population. It's like playing a game for kids. They really like it," Dr Alkhouri said. He explained that the breath of obese children contains different chemical compounds and human nose cannot differentiate between the smells.

The team further examined these breath samples through a spectrometer that detects various compounds based on its size and mass. The researchers found that the concentration of more than 50 compounds were different in the breathprints of obese and lean children. They were able to identify with 92 percent of accuracy whether a child was obese or not merely by the breathprints.

Dr Alkhouri explained that a separate research shows that some of the VOCs can be used to identify the risk of diseases associated with obesity like diabetes and fatty liver disease in the children at an early age. To check on this, some of the children were given a low-fat diet to examine if VOC concentrations change.

"Maybe by altering these (metabolic) pathways, maybe we can prevent some of these complications," said Dr Alkhouri.