Food And Lifestyle Impact On The Exhaled Breath Vocs In Professional Athletes 

Authors: Aleksić M (1)*, Simeon A (2), Vujić Dj (1), Brkić B (1)

Affiliations: (1) Center for Sensing Technologies, (2) Center for Information Technologies, BioSense Institute, University of Novi Sad, Novi Sad, Serbia

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Abstract

Background and objectives

Exhaled breath contains volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that can instantly give insight into some metabolic pathways – e.g., macronutrients digestion. Also, there are indices that physical activity rate and other lifestyle factors (e.g., environment, tobacco, and alcohol consumption) impact certain breath VOCs levels (i.e., isoprene and acetone). Usually, breath analysis is done by gas chromatography, which is not suitable for the in-field work, and it consumes a lot of time for the analysis. This research employs a portable, fast, low-cost membrane-inlet mass spectrometer (MIMS) for the monitoring of the selected breath VOCs with the aim of assessing the food and lifestyle impact.

Methods

44 adult healthy professional athletes from Greece and Portugal donated their exhaled breath samples, with informed consent. Each participant provided a sample before meal (after 12h food restraint), and about 120 min after the meal. Approximately half of the athletes were in a steady state between the first and the second sampling, while the other half performed their regular training in duration of approximately 120 min between two samplings. All participants filed out questionnaires about their lifestyles. MIMS instrument was used for the samples analysis. Four characteristic VOC mass fragments were monitored – m/z 58 for acetone, m/z 42 for n-pentane, m/z 45 for ethanol and m/z 67 for isoprene.

Results and Discussion

Selected exhaled breath VOCs were quantified in samples before and after the meal. Obtained basal VOCs levels were ranked in expected order of magnitude. Food impact was expressed by calculating the change upon meal consumption. Additionally, data collected via questionnaire were compared against obtained VOC levels, and some relationships between participants characteristics and lifestyle habits and breath VOCs were evaluated.