Untargeted Urinary Volatilomics Reveals Hexadecanal as a Potential Biomarker for Preeclampsia.

Preeclampsia (PE) is a severe hypertensive pregnancy disorder characterized by endothelial dysfunction, placental ischemia and oxidative stress; however, reliable non-invasive biomarkers for early detection are limited. In this study, untargeted solid-phase microextraction with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (SPME-GC-MS) was used to analyze volatile organic compounds in the urine of 45 women with PE and 46 healthy controls. Among the 29 metabolites identified, hexadecanal-a product of lipid peroxidation and sphingolipid metabolism-was found to be the most significant, with an area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve of 0.