Sniffing Out Paediatric Gastrointestinal Diseases: The Potential of Volatile Organic Compounds as Biomarkers for Disease.

The diagnostic work-up and follow-up of paediatric functional gastrointestinal disorders and organic conditions usually includes invasive tests, carrying a high burden on patients. There is a place, therefore, for novel, noninvasive disease-specific biomarkers. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs), originating from (patho)physiological metabolic processes in the human body, are excreted as waste products through all conceivable bodily excrements.