Department of Health Risk Analysis and Toxicology, Nutrition and Toxicology Research Institute Maastricht, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
Clin Exp Allergy. 2010 Jan;40(1):68-76. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2222.2009.03343.x. Epub 2009 Sep 28.
The correct diagnosis of asthma in young children is often hard to achieve, resulting in undertreatment of asthmatic children and overtreatment in transient wheezers.
To develop a new diagnostic tool that better discriminates between asthma and transient wheezing and that leads to a more accurate diagnosis and hence less undertreatment and overtreatment. A first stage in the development of such a tool is the ability to discriminate between asthmatic children and healthy controls. The integrative analysis of large numbers of volatile organic compounds (VOC) in exhaled breath has the potential to discriminate between various inflammatory conditions of the respiratory tract.
Breath samples were obtained and analysed for VOC by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry from asthmatic children (n=63) and healthy controls (n=57). A total of 945 determined compounds were subjected to discriminant analysis to find those that could discriminate diseased from healthy children. A set of samples from both asthmatic and healthy children was selected to construct a model that was subsequently used to predict the asthma or the healthy status of a test group. In this way, the predictive value of the model could be tested.
The discriminant analyses demonstrated that asthma and healthy groups are distinct from one another. A total of eight components discriminated between asthmatic and healthy children with a 92% correct classification, achieving a sensitivity of 89% and a specificity of 95%. Conclusion The results show that a limited number of VOC in exhaled air can well be used to distinguish children with asthma from healthy children.
儿童哮喘的正确诊断往往难以实现，导致哮喘患儿治疗不足和一过性喘息者过度治疗。
开发一种新的诊断工具，更好地区分哮喘和一过性喘息，从而更准确地诊断，从而减少治疗不足和过度治疗。这种工具的开发的第一阶段是能够区分哮喘患儿和健康对照组。综合分析大量呼出的挥发性有机化合物（VOC）有可能区分呼吸道的各种炎症状态。
从哮喘患儿（n=63）和健康对照组（n=57）中采集呼吸样本，并通过气相色谱-质谱法分析 VOC。对 945 种确定的化合物进行判别分析，以找到可区分患病儿童和健康儿童的化合物。从哮喘和健康儿童中选择一组样本构建模型，然后用于预测测试组的哮喘或健康状况。这样就可以测试模型的预测值。
判别分析表明哮喘组和健康组彼此不同。共有 8 种成分可将哮喘患儿与健康儿童区分开来，正确分类率为 92%，敏感性为 89%，特异性为 95%。结论：结果表明，呼出空气中有限数量的 VOC 可很好地区分哮喘儿童和健康儿童。
