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Rapid point-of-care detection of SARS-CoV-2 infection in exhaled breath using ion mobility spectrometry: A pilot study.
Eur. J. Med. Res. 28:318 (2023)
Background: An effective testing strategy is essential for pandemic control of the novel Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Breath gas analysis can expand the available toolbox for diagnostic tests by using a rapid, cost-beneficial, high-throughput point-of-care test. We conducted a bi-center clinical pilot study in Germany to evaluate breath gas analysis using multi-capillary column ion mobility spectrometry (MCC-IMS) to detect SARS-CoV-2 infection. Methods: Between September 23, 2020, and June 11, 2021, breath gas measurements were performed on 380 patients (SARS-CoV-2 real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) positive: 186; PCR negative: 194) presenting to the emergency department (ED) with respiratory symptoms. Results: Breath gas analysis using MCC-IMS identified 110 peaks; 54 showed statistically significant differences in peak intensity between the SARS-CoV-2 PCR-negative and PCR-positive groups. A decision tree analysis classification resulted in a sensitivity of 83% and specificity of 86%, but limited robustness to dataset changes. Modest values for the sensitivity (74%) and specificity (52%) were obtained using linear discriminant analysis. A systematic search for peaks led to a sensitivity of 77% and specificity of 67%; however, validation by transferability to other data is questionable. Conclusions: Despite identifying several peaks by MCC-IMS with significant differences in peak intensity between PCR-negative and PCR-positive samples, finding a classification system that allows reliable differentiation between the two groups proved to be difficult. However, with some modifications to the setup, breath gas analysis using MCC-IMS may be a useful diagnostic toolbox for SARS-CoV-2 infection. Trial registration: This study was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov on September 21, 2020 (NCT04556318; Study-ID: HC-N-H-2004).
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Publication type
Article: Journal article
Document type
Scientific Article
Keywords
Breath Gas Analysis ; Covid-19 ; Ion Mobility Spectrometry ; Sars-cov-2
ISSN (print) / ISBN
0949-2321
e-ISSN
2047-783X
Quellenangaben
Volume: 28,
Issue: 1,
Article Number: 318
Publisher
BioMed Central
Publishing Place
Campus, 4 Crinan St, London N1 9xw, England
Non-patent literature
Publications
Reviewing status
Peer reviewed
Institute(s)
Institute of Virology (VIRO)
Grants
The authors would like to acknowledge the use of AI language models, specifically ChatGPT and DeepL, for their assistance in translation and grammar checks during the preparation of this manuscript. They would also like to express their gratitude to Edita