Challenge testing in breathomics

Taivans I, Jurka N, Strazda G.

University of Latvia, Medical Faculty

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Abstract:

Challenge tests are widely used in medicine. Smoking persons every day challenge their lungs with cigarette smoke containing both cancerogenic chemicals and free radical compounds. It is well known that smokers most commonly develop such lung diseases as chronic obstructive lung diseases (COPD) and lung cancer. To reveal the predisposition to these diseases we have started a study on smoking individuals using a cigarette smoking as a challenge test. We analyzed the concentration changes of 35 volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in exhaled air of volunteer smokers before and during two hours period after  the smoking event. We performed 62 exhaled air analyses in 17 voluteers of different age, sex, smoking history and lung health status. The smokers group obstained from smoking at least 10 hours before the examination. Exhaled air specimens were taken before, immediately after, each 15 minutes duing the first hour and each 30 minutes during the second hour after the smoking event. Before the air collection lungs were washed by one minute long breathing of pure synthetic air. Specimens were concentrated on adsorption tubes and later analysed by gas chromatography and mass spectrometry. The pattern of concentration to time curves were different for particular groups of VOCs and for individual persons. Conclusions We hypothetize that individual pattern of body response to cigarette smoke challenge reflects subjects potency to inactivate particular toxic compounds and thus may indicate on predisposition to certain smoke-induced lung diseases.