Variation of volatile organic compound levels within ambient room air and its impact upon the standardisation of breath sampling

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 12; no. 1; pp. 15887 - 7
• Main Authors: Hewitt, Michael Jonathan, Belluomo, Ilaria, Zuffa, Simone, Boshier, Piers R, Myridakis, Antonis
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 23-09-2022; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 631/1647/296; 631/1647/320; 692/4017; 692/53; Air - analysis; Air Pollutants - analysis; Air sampling; Body Fluids - chemistry; Breath tests; Breath Tests - methods; Diurnal variations; Gas chromatography; Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry - methods; Humanities and Social Sciences; Ions; Mass spectrometry; Mass spectroscopy; multidisciplinary; Multivariate analysis; Organic compounds; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); VOCs; Volatile organic compounds; Volatile Organic Compounds - analysis
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-20365-7

The interest around analysis of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) within breath has increased in the last two decades. Uncertainty remains around standardisation of sampling and whether VOCs within room air can influence breath VOC profiles. To assess the abundance of VOCs within room air in common breath sampling locations within a hospital setting and whether this influences the composition of breath. A secondary objective is to investigate diurnal variation in room air VOCs. Room air was collected using a sampling pump and thermal desorption (TD) tubes in the morning and afternoon from five locations. Breath samples were collected in the morning only. TD tubes were analysed using gas chromatography coupled with time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC-TOF-MS). A total of 113 VOCs were identified from the collected samples. Multivariate analysis demonstrated clear separation between breath and room air. Room air composition changed throughout the day and different locations were characterized by specific VOCs, which were not influencing breath profiles. Breath did not demonstrate separation based on location, suggesting that sampling can be performed across different locations without affecting results.