| Title: | Limonene in exhaled breath is elevated in hepatic encephalopathy |
| Author(s): | O'Hara ME; Fernandez Del Rio R; Holt A; Pemberton P; Shah T; Whitehouse T; Mayhew CA; |
| Address: | "School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK. Author to whom any correspondence should be addressed" |
| DOI: | 10.1088/1752-7155/10/4/046010 |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 1752-7163 (Electronic) 1752-7155 (Print) 1752-7155 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "Breath samples were taken from 31 patients with liver disease and 30 controls in a clinical setting and proton transfer reaction quadrupole mass spectrometry (PTR-Quad-MS) used to measure the concentration of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). All patients had cirrhosis of various etiologies, with some also suffering from hepatocellular cancer (HCC) and/or hepatic encephalopathy (HE). Breath limonene was higher in patients with No-HCC than with HCC, median (lower/upper quartile) 14.2 (7.2/60.1) versus 3.6 (2.0/13.7) and 1.5 (1.1/2.3) nmol mol(-1) in controls. This may reflect disease severity, as those with No-HCC had significantly higher UKELD (United Kingdom model for End stage Liver Disease) scores. Patients with HE were categorized as having HE symptoms presently, having a history but no current symptoms and having neither history nor current symptoms. Breath limonene in these groups was median (lower/upper quartile) 46.0 (14.0/103), 4.2 (2.6/6.4) and 7.2 (2.0/19.1) nmol mol(-1), respectively. The higher concentration of limonene in those with current symptoms of HE than with a history but no current symptoms cannot be explained by disease severity as their UKELD scores were not significantly different. Longitudinal data from two patients admitted to hospital with HE show a large intra-subject variation in breath limonene, median (range) 18 (10-44) and 42 (32-58) nmol mol(-1)" |
| Keywords: | Adult Aged Breath Tests/*methods Cyclohexenes/*metabolism Exhalation Female Hepatic Encephalopathy/*diagnosis Humans Limonene Male Middle Aged Terpenes/*metabolism Volatile Organic Compounds/analysis/*metabolism; |
| Notes: | "MedlineO'Hara, M E Fernandez Del Rio, R Holt, A Pemberton, P Shah, T Whitehouse, T Mayhew, C A eng Wellcome Trust/United Kingdom England 2016/11/22 J Breath Res. 2016 Nov 21; 10(4):046010. doi: 10.1088/1752-7155/10/4/046010" |
