Early-stage disease diagnosis is of particular importance for effective patient identification as well as their treatment. Lack of patient compliance for the existing diagnostic methods, however, limits prompt diagnosis, rendering the development of non-invasive diagnostic tools mandatory. One of the most promising non-invasive diagnostic methods that has also attracted great research interest is breath analysis; the method detects gas-analytes such as exhaled volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and inorganic gases that are considered to be important biomarkers for various disease-types. The diagnostic ability of gas-pattern detection using analytical techniques and especially sensors has been widely discussed in the literature; however, the incorporation of novel nanomaterials in sensor-development has also proved to enhance sensor performance, for both selective and cross-reactive applications.
Figure 1. Diagram summarizing the correlation of VOCs present in the exhaled breath, with oxidative stress and inflammatory conditions; metabolic breakdown of larger molecules leads to the formation of exhaled VOCs. Reprinted with permission from ref. [17]. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.| Disease Type | Diseases | Ref. |
|---|---|---|
| Respiratory | Asthma, COPD, obstructive sleep apnea syndrome, pulmonary arterial hypertension, cystic fibrosis | [19] |
| Malignant | Lung, gastric, head and neck, breast, colon, prostate cancer | [15] |
| Neurodegenerative | Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s diseases, multiple sclerosis | [15] |
| Metabolic | Diabetes, hyperglycemia | [12][31] |
| Bacterial infections | Upper respiratory tract infection, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Pseudomonas, Helicobacter pylori infection | [32][22] |
| Viral infections | SARS-CoV-2 | [24][25][26] |
Figure 2. Schematic representation of the working principle of selective sensors and artificially intelligent cross-reactive sensor arrays. Selective sensors contain highly selective elements in order to detect a specific gas-analyte in the presence of a composite gas-mixture. Cross-reactive arrays feature sensors that are sensitive to the majority of the gases present in the gas-mixture. In any case, detecting analyte concentration above a critical value leads to the differentiation between sick and healthy subjects. The response of gas-sensing arrays can be then processed by employing artificial intelligence, machine-learning, and pattern recognition techniques. Reprinted with permission from Ref. [6] Copyright © 2015 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.
Figure 3. Statistical analysis of the response of a nanomaterial-based, cross-reactive chemiresistor for real-world samples of sick and healthy subjects. The use of PCA permits the differentiation of the groups. Notably, relative humidity compensation reduces the dispersion of different clusters thereby improving the discrimination between healthy and sick subjects. Representative 2D breath-analysis PCA plots for prostate cancer diagnosis: (a) without relative humidity compensation; (b) with relative humidity compensation. PCA plots for breast cancer diagnosis: (c) without relative humidity compensation; (d) with relative humidity compensation. Adapted with permission from Ref. [4342] Copyright © 2012, American Chemical Society.| Sensing Element | Disease | Targeted VOCs | LOD | Subjects | Classifier | Results | T | Ref. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| In Vivo Studies—Real-World Samples | ||||||||||||
| Chemiresistor—arrays | ||||||||||||
| Molecularly capped AuNPs—14 different ligands | Lung cancer | 1-Methyl-4-(1-methyl ethyl) benzene, Toluene, 3,3-Dimethyl pentane, 2,3,4-Trimethyl hexane, Dodecane, 1,1′-1-Butenylidene)bis benzene |
NA | 30 LC, 26 CC, 22 BC, 18 PC, 22 HC | PCA | Good discrimination of cancer types from HC, but not between them. No VOC overlap in abundance between HC and cancer patients. |
RT | [16] | ||||
| Colorectal cancer | 1,1′-(1-Butenylidene)bis benzene, 1,3-Dimethyl benzene, 1-Iodo nonane, (1,1-Dimethylethyl)thio acetic acid, 4-(4-Propylcyclohexyl)-4′-cyano1,1′-biphenyl-4-yl ester benzoic acid, 2-Amino-5-isopropyl-8-methyl-1-azulene carbonitrile |
|||||||||||
| Breast cancer | 3,3-Dimethyl pentane, 2-Amino-5-isopropyl-8-methyl-1-azulene carbonitrile, 5-(2-Methylpropyl)nonane, 2,3,4-Trimethyl decane, 6-Ethyl-3-octyl ester 2-trifluoromethyl benzoic acid | |||||||||||
| Prostate cancer | Toluene, 2-Amino-5-isopropyl-8-methyl-1-azulene carbonitrile, 2,2-Dimethyl decane, p-Xylene |
|||||||||||
| Molecularly capped AuNPs—7 different ligands | Prostate cancer | Toluene, 2-Amino-5-isopropyl-8-methyl-1-azulene carbonitrile, 2,2-Dimethyl decane, p-Xylene |
NA | 9 PC, 10 HC | DFA | 100% specificity, 100% sensitivity | RT | [4342] | ||||
| Breast cancer | 3,3-Dimethyl pentane, 2-Amino-5-isopropyl-8-methyl-1-azulene carbonitrile, 5-(2-Methylpropyl)nonane, 2,3,4-Trimethyl decane, 6-Ethyl-3-octyl ester 2-trifluoromethyl benzoic acid | 10 BC, 11 HC | 100% sensitivity, 95% specificity | |||||||||
| Molecularly capped AuNPs—3 different ligands | Chronic kidney disease | healthy vs. stage 2: Isoprene, Acetone, Styrene, Toluene, 2-Butatone, 2,2,6-Trimethyl octane, 2,4-Dimethyl heptane Stage 2 vs. 3: Isoprene, Acetone, 2,2,6-Trimethyl octane, 2-Butatone, 2,4-Dimethyl heptane Stage 3 vs. 4: Acetone, Ethylene Glycol, Acetoin |
1–5 ppb | 42 CKD, 20 HC | SVM | 79% accuracy early-stage CKD vs. HC 85% accuracy CKD stage 4 vs. stage 5 |
RT | [4746] | ||||
| Molecularly capped AuNPs—5 different ligands | Ovarian cancer | Styrene, Nonanal, 2-Ethylhexanol, 3-Heptanone, Decanal, Hexadecane |
ppb level | 17 OV, 26 HC | DFA | 82% accuracy | RT | [4544] | ||||
| Molecularly capped AuNPs—8 different ligands | COVID-19 | NA | NA | 49 COVID-19, 33 non-COVID symptomatic, 58 HC |
DFA | 76% accuracy COVID-19 vs. HC 95% accuracy COVID-19 vs. non-COVID symptomatic |
RT | [24] | ||||
| PAH-coated random SWCNTs network—4 different PAHs | Multiple sclerosis | Hexanal, 5-Methyl-undecane | NA | 37 MS, 18 HC | DFA | 80.4% accuracy | RT | [5049] | ||||
| Molecularly caped AuNPs/CDs-coated random SWCNTs network—20 different sensing films | Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease | 24 VOCs | 1–5 ppb | 15 AD, 30 PD, 12 HC | DFA | 85% accuracy AD vs. HC 78% accuracy PD vs. HC 84% accuracy AD vs. PD |
RT | [5150] | ||||
| Molecularly caped AuNPs/PAH-coated random SWCNTs network—20 different sensing films | 17 diseases (LC, CC, HNC, OC, BLC, PC, KC, GC, CD, UC, IBS, IPD, MS, PDISM, PH, PET, CKD) | 2-Ethylhexanol, 3-Methylhexane, 5-Ethyl-3-methyloctane, Acetone, Ethanol, Ethyl acetate, Ethyl benzene, Isononane, Isoprene, Nonanal, Styrene, Toluene, Undecane |
10 ppb | 813 any of 17 diseases, 591 HC |
DFA, HCA | 86% average accuracy | RT | [5251] | ||||
| Ligand capped Au, Pt, and CuNPs—6 different sensing films | Human cutaneous leishmaniasis | 2,2,4-trimethyl pentane, 4-methyl-2-ethyl-1-pentanol, methyl vinyl ketone, nonane, 2,3,5-trimethyl hexane, hydroxy-2,4,6-trimethyl-5-(3-methyl-2 butenyl)cyclohexyl) methyl acetate, 3-ethyl-3-methyl heptane, octane, 2-methyl-6-methylene-octa-1,7-dien-3-ol | NA | 28 HCL, 32 HC | PCA, DFA | 98.2% accuracy, 96.4% sensitivity, 100% specificity | RT | [5352] | ||||
| pristine, COOH-, Hex-4T-Hex/DNA/oligomers, PTCDA/TAPC/TCTA monomers or PANI-functionalized SWCNTs | COPD | NH3, NO2, H2S, benzene, 2-propanol, acetone, ethanol, sodium hypochlorite, water | sub-ppb | 12 COPD, 9 HC | PCA | Acetone, ethanol and 2-propanol selective PANI-, TAPC- and COOH-CNTs, respectively. NO2 relevant driver of real-samples classification. Larger clinical trials needed. |
RT | [5453] | ||||
| Pristine WO3, 0.008 wt % | and 0.042 wt % Pt-WO3 macroporous NFs | Halitosis | H2S and Methyl mercaptan (in presence of Toluene and Acetone) |
sub-ppm | 4 simulated halitosis breath samples (1 ppm), 4 HC | PCA | Successful classification | 350 °C | [5554] | |||
| 7 different commercial MOS | Lung cancer | Ethyl benzene, 4-Methyl octane, Undecane, 2,3,4-trimethyl hexane |
Down to a few ppb | 37 NSCLC (81.1% I, II), 48 HC |
PCA | 75% accuracy Promising prognostic tool after LC resection surgery |
300 °C | [5655] | ||||
| 5 different commercial MOS | Lung cancer, COPD | NA | NA | 32 LC, 38 COPD, 72 HC | PCA, SVM, k-nearest neighbors | LC vs. HC: 91.3% accuracy, 84.4% sensitivity and 94.4% specificity COPD vs. HC: 90.9% accuracy, 81.6% sensitivity and 95.8% specificity |
NA | [5756] | ||||
| Field Effect Transistor (FET)—arrays | ||||||||||||
| Molecularly modified SiNWs | Gastric cancer | 2-Propenenitril, Furfural, 6-Methyl-5-heptene-2-one |
Down to a few ppb | 30 GC, 77 HC | DFA | >85% accuracy | RT | [5857] | ||||
| Molecularly modified SiNWs | Gastric cancer | 2-Propenenitril, Furfural, 6-Methyl-5-heptene-2-one |
Down to a few ppb | 149 LC, 40 GC, 56 Asthma/COPD, 129 HC |
DFA, ANN | >80% accuracy | RT | [4443] | ||||
| Lung cancer | Heptane, Decane, 2-Methyl pentane, 2-Ethyl-1-hexanol, Propanal, Pentanal, Acetone |
|||||||||||
| Asthma/COPD | Pentane | |||||||||||
| Electrochemical sensor | ||||||||||||
| Commercial NO, CO sensors, carbon electrode with linear-aldehyde selective porous poly tetrafluoroethylene membrane | Diabetes | NO, CO, Formaldehyde, Acrolein, Propanal, Crotonaldehyde, Butanal, Pentanal, Hexanal, Heptanal, Octanal, Nonanal, Decanal, Acetaldehyde | Low ppb | 15 diabetic, 14 HC | LC vs. HC, diabetic vs. HC Cross-sensitivity for aldehyde sensor: Moderate for high level of ethanol and isopropanol/Weak for H2S, NO, methanol, 3-heptanone/None for NO2, propofol, isoprene, or acetone |
RT | [5958] | |||||
| Lung cancer | 3 LC, 3 smokers, 3 HC | |||||||||||
| Optical—Colorimetric sensor arrays | ||||||||||||
| 24 chemically reactive colorants | Lung cancer | NA | Low ppm | 92 LC, 137 HC | LPM | Accuracy 81.1% LC vs. HC, 82.5–89% one histology vs. HC, 86.4% ADC vs. SCC |
RT | [6059] | ||||
| Optical sensors | ||||||||||||
| PMTFP-coated optical fiber | Vit. E deficiency | Ethane | pmol/L | 20 HC | NA | NA | RT | [6160] | ||||
| Liver diseases, Schizophrenia, Breast cancer, Rheumatoid Arthritis | Pentane | |||||||||||
| Lung cancer | Heptane, Octane, Decane, Benzene, Toluene, Styrene | |||||||||||
| Piezoelectric (SAW) sensor arrays | ||||||||||||
| GC-column/Polyisobutylene-coated SAW, non-coated SAW sensors | Lung cancer | Styrene, Decane, Isoprene, Benzene, Undecane, 1-Hexene, Hexanal, Propyl benzene, Heptanal, 1,2,4-Trimethyl benzene, Methyl cyclopentane | 500 ppb | 20 LC, 15 HC, 7 chronic bronchitis |
ANN | 80% sensitivity and specificity | RT | [6][6261] | ||||
| Piezoelectric (QCM) sensor arrays | ||||||||||||
| 7 different | metalloporphyrins | COPD | NA | NA | 5 COPD per GOLD stage (20), 5 HC | PLS-DA | Fair repeatability of measurements within HC and hypoxemic COPD patients (stage 4) Potential COPD severity assessment |
RT | [6362] | |||
| 8 different | metalloporphyrins | Asthma | NA | NA | 27 asthma, 24 HC | PCA, FNN | 87.5% accuracy | RT | [6463] | |||
| 8 different | metalloporphyrins | Lung cancer | NA | NA | 20 LC, 10 HC | PLS-DA | 85% accuracy LC vs. HC 75% accuracy ADC vs. SCC |
RT | [6564] | |||
| 8 different | metalloporphyrins | Lung cancer | NA | NA | 70 LC, 76 HC | PLS-DA | 81% sensitivity, 100% specificity | RT | [6665] | |||
| 8 different | metalloporphyrins | Tuberculosis | NA | NA | 51 TB (31/51 +HIV), 20 HC | PCA, k-nearest neighbors | 94.1% sensitivity, 90% specificity | RT | [6766] | |||
| 7 different | metalloporphyrins | Halitosis | H2S, Butyric acid, Valeric acid | 10–15 ppb | Oral malodor subjects, HC | PCA | PC1 78% of data variance | 50 °C | [6867] | |||
| 8 different anthocyanins | Asthma | NA | NA | 15 asthma, 27 HC | Factor Analysis | 75% of total variance Repeatability similar to spirometry and eNO |
RT | [6968] | ||||
| In vitro studies—Cell lines/Synthetic samples | ||||||||||||
| Chemiresistor arrays | ||||||||||||
| CNT-conductive polymer nanocomposites—5 different polymers | Lung cancer | Isopropanol, Tetrahydrofuran, Dichloromethane, Toluene, n-Heptane, Cyclohexane, Methanol, Ethanol, Water | NA | PCA | High sensitivity and selectivity for all the analytes, PC1-PC3 98% of total variance, except the two alkanes |
RT | [7069] | |||||
| Pristine rGO and rGO functionalized with 8 different amine ligands—9 elements | Cancer | Ethanol, 2-Ethylhexanol, Ethyl benzene, Nonanal | 25 ppm | NA | PCA | Successful discrimination of VOCs The LOD and the effect of humidity have to be decreased |
RT | [7170] | ||||
| Pristine Pd, ZnO and polypyrrole NWs | Breast cancer | Heptanal | 8.98 ppm | NA | PCA | 73.2% PC1 variance High sensitivity and specificity |
RT | [7271] | ||||
| Acetophenone | 798 ppb | |||||||||||
| 2-Propanol | 129.5 ppm | |||||||||||
| Isopropyl myristate | 134 ppm | |||||||||||
| Pristine In2O3 and WO3 NRs, Au, Pt, or Pd NPs-decorated In2O3 and WO3 NRs—8 elements | Diabetes | Acetone | 1.48 ppb | NA | Polar plot | Effective visual discrimination between the gases. Future PCA, DFA, HCA analysis. |
150–300 °C | [7372] | ||||
| Asthma | NO2 | 1.9 ppt | ||||||||||
| Halitosis | H2S | 2.47 ppb | ||||||||||
| WO3 NTs | Pt NPs—WO3 NTs, | Pd NPs—WO3 NTs | Asthma | NO | 50 ppb | NA | NA | NA | 350 °C | [7473] | ||
| Lung cancer | Toluene | 100 ppb | 400 °C | |||||||||
| Pristine, 0.1% wt GO- and 0.1 wt % thin layered graphite WO3 Hemi tubes | Diabetes | Acetone | 1 ppm | NA | NA | NA | 350 °C | [7574] | ||||
| Halitosis | H2S | |||||||||||
| Electrochemical sensor | ||||||||||||
| MWCNTs/Au-Ag NPs/GCE | Gastric cancer | 3-Octanone | 0.3 ppb | MGC-803 GC and GES-1 gastric mucosa cell lines | NA | Easy cell line discrimination, high sensitivity, good VOCs selectivity in presence of CO2, acetone and ethanol | RT | [7675] | ||||
| Butanone | 0.5 ppb | |||||||||||
| SiNWs-rGO | Infectious diseases | Cyclohexane, Formaldehyde in presence of Methanol, Ethanol, Acetonitrile, Acetaldehyde and humidity | 1 ppm | NA | Novel electrode platform with increased sensitivity, selectivity and repeatability | [7776] | ||||||
| Piezoelectric (SAW) sensor arrays | ||||||||||||
| SH-Calix4arene, | AuNRs, AgNCs, | Calix4arene-AuNRs, Calix4arene-AgNCs | Lung cancer | Chloroform, Toluene, Isoprene, Acetone, n-Hexane, Ethanol | 1.52–12.34 ppm for CHCl3 1.54–2.64 ppm for toluene |
NA | NA | Sensitivity ↑ for all VOCs Chloroform, toluene: 6–8 times higher sensitivity than individual responses Selectivity ↑: modified AuNRs for CHCl3, modified AgNCs for Toluene |
RT | [7877] | ||
| Pristine or AuNPs-functionalized zeolitic-imidazole-framework nanocrystals (ZIF-8, ZIF-67) | Diabetes | Acetone, Ammonia, Ethanol | acetone 1.1–3.6 ppm, ethanol 0.5–3 ppm NH3 1.6–3.2 ppm |
NA | PCA | Effective discrimination of diabetes biomarkers | RT | [7978] | ||||
| Piezoelectric (QCM) sensor arrays | ||||||||||||
| TiO2-MWCNTS and Cobalt (II) phthalocyanine-silica on Au layers | Diabetes | Acetone | 4.33 ppm | NA | NA | High sensitivity | RT | [8079] | ||||
| Asthma | NO | 5.75 ppb | ||||||||||
| Optical—Colorimetric arrays | ||||||||||||
| 36 chemically responsive dyes (porphyrin derivatives, NaFluo) | Lung cancer | p-Xylene, Styrene, Isoprene, Hexanal | 50 ppb | NA | HCA, PCA, BPNN | 100% accuracy of kind and concentration discrimination, promising for real-sample experiments | RT | [8180] | ||||
| AuNRs-modified metalloporphyrins and pH responsive dyes—36 spots | Lung cancer | Decane, Undecane, Hexanal, Heptanal, 1,2,4-Trimethylbenzene, Benzene | <1 ppm | NA | PCA, HCA | 64.2% accuracy of structurally similar VOCs, 93% photoprotection of metalloporphyrins, ↑ repeatability and long-term stability | RT | [8281] | ||||
| Sensor | Diseases/Phenotypes/Stages | Subjects | Classifier | Results | Ref. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Differential diagnosis | |||||||
| Cyranose 320 | NSCLC vs. COPD (GOLD stage I-III) | 10 NSCLC, 10 COPD | PCA, CDA | 85% acc. | [8382] | ||
| LC vs. non-cancer (COPD, asthma, pneumonia, pulmonary embolism, BPN) | 165 LC, 91 non-cancer | SVM | 87.3% acc. | [8483] | |||
| LC vs. COPD vs. LC/COPD vs. HC | 63 LC, 15 COPD, 79 both, 78 HC | 77.4% acc., 100% accurate LC/COPD classification | |||||
| LC vs. non-cancer (COPD, asthma, pneumonia, pulmonary embolism, bronchiectasis, BPN, TB) | 252 LC, 223 non-cancer | LRA | Sens.: 95.8% (S), 96.2% (NS) Spec.: 92.3% (S) 90.6% (NS) |
[8584] | |||
| Asthma vs. COPD | 20 asthma, 30 COPD | PCA, CDA | 96% acc. Within/between day repeatability, reproducibility of e-Noses |
[8685] | |||
| Fixed and classic asthma vs. COPD (GOLD stages II-III) | 21 fixed asthma, 40 COPD | PCA, CDA | 88% acc., 85% sens., 90% spec. | [8786] | |||
| 39 classic asthma, 40 COPD | 83% acc., 91% sens., 90% spec. | ||||||
| IPF vs. COPD | 32 IPF, 33 COPD | PCA, CDA | 80% cross-validated acc., Wider patient cohorts and inclusion of more comorbidities needed | [8887] | |||
| COPD vs. LC vs. BC | 50 COPD, 30 LC, 50 BC | PCA, CDA, CAP | Correct classification values: LC vs. COPD 96.47%, LC vs. BC 93.05%, BC vs. COPD 100%, COPD vs. LC vs. BC 91.35% |
[4948] | |||
| Bronchial vs. Laryngeal SCC (advanced) | 10 bronchial, 10 laryngeal | JMP Pro | 10% misclassification, 100% sens., 80% spec. | [8988] | |||
| AD vs. PD vs. HC | 18 AD, 16 PD, 19 HC | LDA | 76.2% sens., 45.8% spec., p < 0.0001 | [9089] | |||
| AeoNose | ILDs (COP, CTD) vs. COPD, ILDs subgroups (COP, HP, IPF, sarcoidosis, uILD, asbestosis, NSIP, RB-ILD, DIP) |
28 COP, 23 COPD | Athena program, t-test | AUC 0.77, 75% sens., 71% spec. | [9190] | ||
| 25 CTD-ILD, 23 COPD | AUC 0.85, 88% sens., 71% spec. | ||||||
| 174 ILDs, 23 COPD | Less accurate discrimination of ILDs subgroups (e.g., AUC IPF vs. CTD-ILD 0.86, COP vs. CTD-ILD 0.82) | ||||||
| Asthma vs. CF | 20 asthma (moderate-severe), 13 CF | ANN | AUC 0.90, 89% sens., 77% spec. | [9291] | |||
| HNSCC vs. LC | 52 HNSCC, 32 LC | ANN | Acc., sens., spec.: 93%, 96%, 88% (best fit), 85%, 85%, 84% (cross-validation) |
[9392] | |||
| Cancer types | 100 HNSCC, 40 bladder, 28 colon cancer | ANN | Acc., sens., spec.: 81%, 79%, 81% HNSCC vs. colon cancer, 84%, 80%, 86% HNSCC vs. bladder cancer, 84%, 88%, 79% Colon vs. bladder cancer |
[9493] | |||
| SpiroNose | LC vs. COPD vs. asthma vs. HC | 31 LC, 31 COPD, 37 asthma, 45 HC | PCA | Cross-validation values 78–88%, repeatability ↑ | [9594] | ||
| ILD subgroups: | 141 sarcoidosis, 85 IPF, 33 CTD-ILD, 25 HP, 11 IPAF, 10 NSIP | PLS-DA | Acc., sens., spec.: 77%, 75%, 84% IPF vs. HP, 94%, 98%, 85% IPF vs. CTD-ILD, 92%, 92%, 90% IPF vs. NSIP, 89%, 87%, 100% IPF vs. IPAF, 75%, 100%, 67% CTD-ILD vs. IPAF, 98%, 90%, 100% CTC-ILD vs. NSIP, 90%, 94%, 72% HP vs. sarcoidosis, 91%, 92%, 88% (training), 91%, 95%, 79% (validation) IPF vs. non-IPF |
[9695] | |||
| Chemiresistor-based | alkane sensor | LC vs. HC LC vs. COPD |
12 LC, 12 COPD, 13 HC | MANOVA | LC: 83.3% sens., 88% spec. Sensor acc no smoke-dependence |
[9796] | |
| MOS, electrochemical, hot wire, and catalytic | LC vs. COPD | 48 LC, 52 COPD | 8 different | 76.9–84.75% acc., 75–81.36% sens., 78.79–88.14 spec. Highest acc. With KPCA-XGBoost |
[9897] | ||
| LC vs. COPD | 33 LC, 28 COPD | PCA-SVM, KPCA-SVM, PCA-XGBoost, KPCA-XGBoost | 82.52–96% acc., 78.33–95% sens., 85–96.67% spec. Highest acc. With KPCA-XGBoost |
[9998] | |||
| Organically-coated AuNPs and SWCNTs based chemiresistor | LC (I/II) vs. BPN | 16 LC, 30 BPN | DFA | 87% acc., 75% sens., 93% spec. Low LC sample → careful interpretation |
[10099] | ||
| BC vs. benign | 30 HC, 15 BBT, 13 DCIS, 96 BC | DFA | Acc., sens., spec.: 88.3%, 90.6%, 83.3% BC vs. BBT/HC, 71.2–82%, 62.6–80%, 75.7–82.3% BC vs. BBT, 81.4–84.4%, 83–83.3%, 81–92% BC vs. DCIS |
[101100] | |||
| Gca vs. OLGIM groups (0-IV) | 99 Gca, 155 OLGIM 0, 136 OLGIM I-II, 34 OLGIM III-IV, 53 PUD | DFA | Acc., sens., spec.: 92%, 73%, 98% Gca vs. 0–IV, 84%, 90%, 80% Gca vs. 0, 87%, 97%, 84% Gca vs. 0–II, 90%, 93%, 80% Gca vs. III-IV, 85%, 93%, 80% Gca vs. I–IV, 87%, 87%, 87% Gca vs. PUD |
[102101] | |||
| Gca vs. benign gastric conditions | 37 Gca, 32 ulcers, 61 less severe conditions | DFA | 89% sens., 90% spec. 84% sens., 87% spec. |
[103102] | |||
| ulcer vs. less severe | |||||||
| AD vs. PD AD vs. PD vs. HC |
15 AD, 30 PD, 12 HC | DFA | AD vs. PD: 84% acc., 80% sens., 87% spec. Feasible overall discrimination, with large PD/HC overlap |
[5150] | |||
| NA-NOSE | BC, benign breast conditions, normal mammographs | 11 BC, 14 benign, 7 normal mammographs | PCA/ANOVA/Student’s t-test, SVM | 94% sens., 80% spec. for benign vs. BC and negative mammography, Similar results with both methods | [104103] | ||
| MCNPs-based chemiresistor—6 sensors-array | IBD vs. IBS | 71 IBD (35 UC, 36 CD), 26 IBS | ANN | 81/88% acc., 92/73% sens., 53/100% spec. (real/artificial) | [105104] | ||
| CD vs. UC | 75/96% acc., 75/100% sens., 47/93% spec. (real/artificial) | ||||||
| Molecularly modified SiNW FET | Gca vs. LC | 40 Gca, 149 LC, 56 asthma/COPD | DFA, ANN | 92% acc., 93% LC, and 85% Gca correct classification | [4443] | ||
| LC vs. asthma and COPD | 89% acc., 92% sens., 80% spec. | ||||||
| MOS gas sensor array | Gca vs. gastric ulcer patients | 49 Gca, 30 gastric ulcer | Back-propagation Neural network | 93% acc., 94.38% sens., 89.93% spec. Classification acc. Of malignant, benign, normal subjects: 92.54%, 93.17%, 92.49%. |
[106105] | ||
| OC vs. benign and HC | 86 OC, 51 benign, 114 HC | PCA, k-NN | Acc., sens., spec.: 85%, 6%, 84% (cross-validation/strict prediction), 87%, 89%, 86% (prediction/strict prediction), 86%, 84%, 85% (cross-validation/most probable pred.), 100%, 100%, 100% (prediction/most probable pred.) |
[107106] | |||
| AD vs. PD vs. HC | 20 AD, 20 PD, 20 HC | PCA | Effective discrimination of AD vs. PD and HC | [108107] | |||
| BIONOTE | CLD vs. NC-CLD | 65 CLD, 39 NC-CLD | PLS-DA, radar plot | Successful discrimination, 16 cirrhotic patients misclassified | [109108] | ||
| Commercial (MQ) gas sensors | CKD vs. diabetes vs. HC high creatinine, HC low creatinine | 84 CKD, 24 diabetes, 54 HC high creatinine, 54 HC low creatinine | Radar plots, PCA, SVM, PLS-regression, HCA | PCA: 96.64% of total variance expressed in PC1–3 SVM: 100% correct classification of samples |
[110109] | ||
| Disease histology/phenotyping | |||||||
| Tor Vergata e-Nose | SCC vs. ADC | 10 SCC, 10 ADC | PLS-DA | 75% correct classification | [6564] | ||
| 24 colorants | SCC vs. ADC | 22 SCC, 50 ADC | LPM | 86.4% acc. | [6059] | ||
| SCLC vs. NSCLC | 9 SCLC, 83 NSCLC | 78.1% acc. (moderate) | |||||
| UV-irradiated pristine, Au, Pt, Au/Pt, Ni, Fe-doped WO3NWs | LC vs. HC | 4 SCLC, 8 SCC, 10 ADC, 12 HC | PCA | 98.6 % acc. | [111110] | ||
| SCLC vs. NSCLC, SCC vs. ADC | DFA | Acc.: 84.5% SCLC vs. NSCLC,77.5% SCC vs. ADC | |||||
| Molecularly capped AuNPs and SWCNT based chemiresistors | LC with vs. without EGFR mutation | 19 with EGFR, 34 without EGFR | DFA | 83% acc., 79% sens., 85% spec. | [10099] | ||
| Cyranose 320, Tor Vergata, Common In-vent, Owlstone Lonestar | Clinically stable vs. unstable episodes of asthma | 22 partly controlled persistent asthma | PCA | Correct classification: 95% baseline vs. loss of control, 86% loss of control vs. recovery Owlstone Lonestar the most prominent |
[112111] | ||
| Cyranose 320 | Asthma inflammatory phenotypes | 24 EOS., 10 NEUTR., 18 PAUC. | PCA | Acc., sens., spec.: 73%, 60%, 79% EOS. vs. NEUTR., 74%, 55%, 87% EOS vs. PAUC., 89%, 94%, 80% NEUTR. vs. PAUC. | [113112] | ||
| Uncontrolled asthma-like symptoms | Training set: 65 cluster 1, 22 cluster 2, 34 cluster 3 | one-way ANOVA, Kruskal-Wallis |
Significant differences concerning chest tightness during exercise, dyspnea and gender | [114113] | |||
| HC and controlled vs. partly controlled and uncontrolled asthma | 10 HC, 9 controlled, 7 partly, 12 uncontrolled | PCA, radar plot | Good predictive ability Cross-validated AUC 0.80, 79% sens., 84% spec. |
[115114] | |||
| Organically-coated AuNPs and SWCNT-based chemiresistor | BC subtypes | 12 LuminalA, 42 LuminalB, 12 Triple Negative, 16 HER2+, 14 HER2 equivocal | DFA | Acc., sens., spec.: LuminalA vs. others 81.3–87.7%, 75–87.5%, 82.1–87.5% LuminalB vs. others78.1–86.3%, 83.3–85.3%, 74.1–87.2% HER2+ vs. others 81.3–82.4%, 81.3–91%, 80.7–81.3% Triple neg, vs. others 82.9–90.3%, 83.3–93.3%, 82.9–89.4% Luminal vs. non-Luminal 70.8–87.7%, 70.4–88.1%, 71.4–87.1% LuminalA vs. LuminalB 85.7–94%, 75–91.7%, 88.2–95.2% HER2 status/luminal 85.7–100%, 85.7–100%, 83.3–100% HER2 status/non-luminal 90.9%, 90.9%, 90.9% |
[101100] | ||
| Disease staging | |||||||
| Tor Vergata e-Nose | LC Stage I vs. II/III/IV | 40 stage I, 18 stage II, 6 III/IV | PLS-DA | Sens.: stage I 90% vs. stage II-IV 57% (+ metabolic diseases), stage I 96% vs. stage II-IV 60% (LC only) |
[6665] | ||
| 24 colorants | LC Stage I/II vs. LC stage III/IV | 41 SCLC, 42 NSCLC | LPM | 79.3 % acc. (moderate) | [6059] | ||
| 11 sensor-array (MOS, electrochemical, hot wire and catalytic) | LC Stage III vs. IV | 44 stage II, 46 stage IV | PCA-SVM, KPCA-SVM, PCA-XGBoost, KPCA-XGBoost | 70.42–82.42% acc., 45–81% sens., 79–95.5% spec. | [9998] | ||
| Organically-coated AuNPs and SWCNTs based chemiresistor | OLGIM stages | 155 OLGIM 0, 136 OLGIM I-II, 34 OLGIM III-IV, 7 Dysplasia | DFA | Acc., sens., spec.: 0-II vs. III-IV and dysplasia 61%, 83%, 60%, 0 vs. I-II 43%, 45%, 41%, 0 vs. III-IV 66%, 90%, 61%, 0 vs. I-IV 50%, 50%, 50%, I-II vs. III-IV 64%, 80%, 60% | [102101] | ||
| GCa I-II vs. III-IV | 17 GCa I-II, 18 GCa III-IV | DFA | 89% sens., 94% spec. | [103102] | |||
| Molecularly modified SiNW FET | LC staging (I-II vs. III-IV) | 34 early stage, 110 advanced stage | DFA, ANN | 81% acc., 34.5%sens.,95% spec. | [4443] | ||
| GCa staging (I-II vs. III-IV) | 86.5% correct classification, 84.6 early stage, 87.5 advanced | ||||||
| Cyranose 320 | Bronchial/Laryngeal in situ vs. advanced |
bronchial: 10 in situ, 10 advanced, laryngeal: 12 in situ, 10 advanced | JMP Pro | 21% misclassification rate, 82% sens., 75% spec. | [8988] | ||
| BIONOTE | Liver cirrhosis (A, B, C Child–Pugh) | NA | PLS-DA | Successful discrimination | [109108] | ||
Figure 4. (a) Presentation of the cross-validation percentages of the differentiation of asthma, COPD, LC patients, and HC, using SpiroNose; (b) PCA plot of breathprints collected from asthmatic patients at the Academic Medical Center (AMC), Amsterdam and Medical Spectrum Twente (MST), Enschede, for which no significant differentiation is observed (p = 0.892). Adapted with permission from Ref. [9594]. Copyright © 2015 IOP Publishing Ltd.
Concerning LC histology and staging with sensing devices, promising studies have been reported in the literature. The discrimination of NSCLC subtypes ADC and SCC has been permitted using Tor Vergata e-Nose with an accuracy of 75%, by applying endoscopic breath sampling [6564] as well as by using a colorimetric sensor-array of 24 elements developed by Mazzone et al. ultimately achieving an accuracy of 86.4% [6059]. SCLC and NSCLC differentiation and LC staging (I/II vs. III/IV) were also examined by Mazzone et al. though with moderate accuracies [6059]. A 6-sensor-array based on UV-irradiated (394 nm) pristine or metal-doped WO3NWs (Table 3) differentiated effectively not only ADC from SCC, but also between SCLC and NSCLC with 77.5% and 84.5% accuracy values, respectively (Figure 5) [111110]. In another study aiming at the discrimination of LC patients from HC while taking into account the existence of metabolic comorbidities, Tor Vergata e-Nose exhibited far higher sensitivity for stage I LC in comparison to the rest of stages, either in the presence or absence of metabolic diseases (Table 3) [6665]. LC staging was recently attempted by Liu et al. along with COPD discrimination as mentioned above, with stage III LC being effectively discriminated from stage IV with an accuracy higher than 80%, using KPCA-XGBoost [9998]. Haick’s team has achieved LC staging with an accuracy of 81% and with low sensitivity, using a molecularly modified Si NW FET (Table 3) [4443].
Figure 5. DFA plots representing the discrimination of (a) LC patients from HC; (b) SCLC from NSCLC patients; and (c) SCC from ADC patients, using a 6-sensor array of UV-irradiated (394 nm) pristine or metal-doped WO3NWs. The arrays achieved the detection of lung cancer but also the prediction of LC histological subtypes. Reprinted with permission from Ref. [111110]. Copyright © 2020 Published by Elsevier B.V.
As in the case of breath analysis with analytical methods, precise diagnosis of lung diseases other than LC via sensing devices is an extensive field of research. The effective discrimination of COPD and asthma has been reported in the literature by Fens at al. using Cyranose 320 and taking into consideration smoking habits, leading to high cross-validated accuracy values (Table 3) [85][86][87]. More recently, asthma and CF discrimination was also reported for pediatric population using AeoNose and with high accuracy values, excluding the confounding factors of diet, exercise, comorbidities and inhaled drugs [9291]. Concerning ILDs, Krauss et al. used the AeoNose in an attempt to differentiate between ILDs subgroups (Table 3), with moderate accuracy, as well as between ILDs cryptogenic organizing pneumonia and connective-tissue diseases-associated ILD from COPD patients with good sensitivity and specificity [9190]. COPD and IPF differentiation has been recently investigated by Dragonieri et al., with a high accuracy of 80%, verified by external validation using Cyranose 320 [8887]. In contrast to Krauss et al., Moor’s group achieved to reliably discriminate patients suffering from different ILDs by using SpiroNose as well as greater cohorts of ILD-patients (Table 3) [9695]; the group demonstrated the applicability of e-Noses in ILDs differential diagnosis and specifically in IPF discrimination from non-IPF patients with high accuracies (91%) [9695].
Disease phenotyping using sensing devices seems to be also feasible. Plaza et al. achieved differentiation between the three inflammatory phenotypes of asthma with high accuracy values (Table 3), with the participants’ phenotypes being characterized by differential leukocyte counts in induced sputum [113112] while asthma-control assessment has been also reported. Brinkman et al. used 4 different e-Noses in order to discriminate between stable and unstable periods, comparing baseline (control) vs. loss of control and loss of control vs. recovery breath samples, with the Owlstone Lonestar being the most prominent concerning the discrimination of unstable periods (Table 3) [112111]. More recently, Moreira et al. demonstrated the ability of Cyranose 320 to discriminate the uncontrolled asthma-like symptoms, using 3 different groups of asthmatic or suspicious of asthma participants divided by unsupervised hierarchical clustering [114113]. The division of participants was based on asthma, lung function, symptoms of the last month, age, and food/drink intake 2 h before breath sampling [114113]. In another recent study, the same e-Nose was used for the effective discrimination of HC and asymptomatic-controlled asthmatic children from the symptomatic partly-controlled and uncontrolled asthmatic children, after assessing the discriminatory ability of subsets of the 32 sensors of Cyranose 320 for the six different possible combinations of the 4 studied groups; increased feasibility and modest to good diagnostic accuracy values were obtained [115114]. Cyranose 320 has been also used for COPD phenotyping permitting (especially in the case of GOLD stage I) the detection of activation of inflammatory cells, indicating increased inflammatory activity in mild rather than severe COPD [131130].