Title: | Air sampling unit for breath analyzers |
Author(s): | Szabra D; Prokopiuk A; Mikolajczyk J; Ligor T; Buszewski B; Bielecki Z; |
Address: | "Institute of Optoelectronics, Military University of Technology, 2 Kaliskiego St., 00-908 Warsaw, Poland. Environmental Chemistry and Bioanalytics, Faculty of Chemistry, Nicolaus Copernicus University, 7 Gagarin St., 87-100 Torun, Poland" |
ISSN/ISBN: | 1089-7623 (Electronic) 0034-6748 (Linking) |
Abstract: | "The paper presents a portable breath sampling unit (BSU) for human breath analyzers. The developed unit can be used to probe air from the upper airway and alveolar for clinical and science studies. The BSU is able to operate as a patient interface device for most types of breath analyzers. Its main task is to separate and to collect the selected phases of the exhaled air. To monitor the so-called I, II, or III phase and to identify the airflow from the upper and lower parts of the human respiratory system, the unit performs measurements of the exhaled CO(2) (ECO(2)) in the concentration range of 0%-20% (0-150 mm Hg). It can work in both on-line and off-line modes according to American Thoracic Society/European Respiratory Society standards. A Tedlar bag with a volume of 5 dm(3) is mounted as a BSU sample container. This volume allows us to collect ca. 1-25 selected breath phases. At the user panel, each step of the unit operation is visualized by LED indicators. This helps us to regulate the natural breathing cycle of the patient. There is also an operator's panel to ensure monitoring and configuration setup of the unit parameters. The operation of the breath sampling unit was preliminarily verified using the gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) laboratory setup. At this setup, volatile organic compounds were extracted by solid phase microextraction. The tests were performed by the comparison of GC/MS signals from both exhaled nitric oxide and isoprene analyses for three breath phases. The functionality of the unit was proven because there was an observed increase in the signal level in the case of the III phase (approximately 40%). The described work made it possible to construct a prototype of a very efficient breath sampling unit dedicated to breath sample analyzers" |
Keywords: | Breath Tests/*instrumentation Butadienes/analysis *Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry Hemiterpenes/analysis Humans Nitric Oxide/analysis Pentanes/analysis *Solid Phase Microextraction Volatile Organic Compounds/analysis; |
Notes: | "MedlineSzabra, Dariusz Prokopiuk, Artur Mikolajczyk, Janusz Ligor, Tomasz Buszewski, Boguslaw Bielecki, Zbigniew eng 2017/12/03 Rev Sci Instrum. 2017 Nov; 88(11):115006. doi: 10.1063/1.4995502" |