Electronic Noses for Healthcare Applications
Creators: name: Germanese, Danila
name: Colantonio, Sara
name: D'Acunto, Mario
name: Magrini, Massimo
name: Righi, Marco
name: Salvetti, Ovidio
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2018
Subjects: Breath analysis
E-noses
Gas sensors
Semiconductor gas sensors
Data analysis
Biosignals
Biomedical devices

description: Breath analysis allows for monitoring the metabolic processes that occur in human<br>
body in a non-invasive way. Comparing with other traditional methods<br>
such as blood test, breath analysis is harmless to not only the subjects but also<br>
the personnel who collect the samples.<br>
However, despite its great potential, only few breath tests are commonly used in clinical<br>
practice nowadays. Breath analysis has not gained a wider use yet. One of the main<br>
reasons is related to standard instrumentation for gas analysis. Standard instrumentation,<br>
such as gas chromatography, is expensive and time consuming. Its use, as well as<br>
the interpretation of the results, often requires specialized personnel. E-nose systems,<br>
based on gas sensor array, are easier to use and able to analyze gases in real time, but,<br>
although cheaper than a gas chromatograph, their cost remains high.<br>
During our research activity, we designed and developed the so called Wize Sniffer (WS), a device able<br>
to accurately analyze human breath composition and, at the same time, to overcome the<br>
limitations of existing instrumentation for gas analysis.<br>
The idea of the Wize Sniffer was born in the framework of SEMEiotic Oriented Technology<br>
for Individual’s CardiOmetabolic risk self-assessmeNt and Self-monitoring (SEMEOTICONS,<br>
www.semeoticons.eu) European Project, and it was designed for detecting,<br>
in human breath, those molecules related to the noxious habits for cardio-metabolic<br>
risk. The clinical assumption behind the Wize Sniffer lied in the fact that harmful habits<br>
such as alcohol consumption, smoking, unhealthy diet cause a variation in the concentration<br>
of a set of molecules (among which carbon monoxide, ethanol, hydrogen,<br>
hydrogen sulfide) in the exhaled breath. Therefore, the goal was to realize a portable<br>
and easy-to-use device, based on cheap electronics, to be used by anybody at their<br>
home.<br>
The main contributions of the work were the following:<br>
design and development of a portable, low cost, customizable, easy to use device,<br>
able to be used in whichever context of use: we succeeded in this with using cheap<br>
commercial discrete gas sensors and an Arduino board; <br>
development of a method to analyze breath composition and understand individual’s<br>
cardio-metabolic risk; we also validated it with success on real people.<br>
Given such good outcomes, we wanted the Wize Sniffer took a further step forward,<br>
towards the diagnosis in particular. The application field regarded the chronic liver<br>
impairment, as the studies which involve e-nose systems in the identification of liver<br>
disease are still few. In addition, the diagnosis of liver impairment often requires very<br>
invasive clinical test (biopsy, for instance).<br>
In this proof-of-concept study, the Wize Sniffer showed good diagnosis-oriented properties<br>
in discriminating the severity of liver disease (absence of disease, chronic liver<br>
disease, cirrhosis, hepatic encephalopathy) on the base of the detected ammonia.