Thermal desorption: Ensuring data quality in breath analysis
First presented at the Owlstone Breath Biopsy Conference 2020
The poster entitled “Thermal desorption: Ensuring data quality in breath analysis” was presented by Markes International at the Owlstone Breath Biopsy Conference 2020, which was held on 10–11 November 2020 as a virtual conference.
The potential for non-invasive disease diagnosis
The analysis of VOCs in exhaled breath offers an exciting potential opportunity to diagnose life-threatening diseases in a non-invasive and inexpensive fashion. If accepted into clinical practice, this approach would allow cost-effective screening of large populations, facilitating early diagnosis, improving patient outcomes and reducing health care costs.
Many breath analysis studies target the broadest possible range of vapour-phase compounds, particularly during biomarker discovery phases, and rely on the use of thermal desorption (TD) tubes coupled with gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS), widely accepted as the ‘gold standard’ analytical tool.
Tackling high water content in breath samples
This approach can help to tackle challenges such as high water content and a wide analyte concentration range. The use of TD-based techniques can also address issues around the irreplaceability of each sample, by making it easier to ensure the quality and integrity of the samples throughout the sampling and analytical workflows. In this poster, we present recent advances in TD technology for optimising data quality in breath analysis.
