Point of care exhaled breath test for the diagnosis of community acquired pneumonia

The rapid identification of bacterial pathogens associated with infections in community acquired pneumonia (CAP) using a simple diagnostic test is critical for effective patient care and this would reduce the financial burden of treatment and antibiotic prescriptions. Breath analysis is a non-invasive rapid process whereby small quantities of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) can be detected in human breath, and they can form a fingerprint that can be used for early disease detection and diagnosis. Volatile metabolites are produced by different bacteria types. This project will investigate the use of nanosensor based arrays to detect, distinguish and quantify the volatile metabolites associated with common bacterial and viral infections, which would form the basis of a breath diagnostic test for CAP. A nanosensor array will be optimized and then exposed to simulated gas mixtures which will represent a typical breath sample from a patient with bacterial or viral infections.