Pilot study for bladder cancer detection with volatile organic compounds using ion mobility spectrometry: a novel urine-based approach.

Purpose: Despite many efforts, no reliable urinary marker system has so far shown the potential to substitute cystoscopy. Measuring volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from urine is a promising alternative. VOCs are metabolic products which can be measured from the headspace of urine samples.

Exhaled volatile organic compounds discriminate patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease from healthy subjects.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a chronic airway inflammatory disease characterized by incompletely reversible airway obstruction. This clinically heterogeneous group of patients is characterized by different phenotypes. Spirometry and clinical parameters, such as severity of dyspnea and exacerbation frequency, are used to diagnose and assess the severity of COPD.

Bronchoscopically obtained volatile biomarkers in lung cancer.

Background: The exhaled breath of lung cancer patients contains volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that differ from those in healthy individuals. These VOCs can be detected with methods such as ion mobility spectrometry (IMS); their origin remains unknown.

Methods: In 19 patients with lung cancer, exhaled breath was aspirated via the working channel of a flexible bronchoscope from both the tumor-bearing and the opposite lung and analyzed with IMS.