2026
Volume 26, Number 1, pp. 42-50
A brief history of breath analysis
J.J. Ramsden1,2
1Department of Biomedical Research, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, The University of Buckingham, MK18 1EG, UK
2Centre for Molecular Recognition, Collegium Basilea (Institute of Advanced Study), Basel, Switzerland
Investigating the physical and chemical characteristics of breath had little meaning before a proper conception of breathing had been established. Early measurements (in the late 18th century by Lavoisier and Spallanzani) of the nature of exhaled gases were mainly concerned with establishing basic physiology. Carbon dioxide emerged as a key substance, and its monitoring (capnography) became an important part of modern hospital medicine. Quantitative measurement of lung capacity (Hutchinson) came a few decades later, and was used to predict vital parameters. The first measurement of exhaled volatile organic compounds (VOCs) seems to have been made by Anstie (1867) as part of his effort to determine whether ingested ethanol was metabolized. Soon after, Ransome (1870) explored the diagnostic potential of breath condensate. Nowadays breath analysis is considered to be important for diagnosing disease, as a noninvasive adjunct or alternative to blood analysis. Its key advantages of noninvasiveness, rapidity and (potentially) low cost encourage its large-scale deployment in point-of-care settings. Nevertheless, it has the potential to be used on a vaster scale for characterizing the health, both instantaneously and predictively, of individuals of entire populations.
Keywords: Keywords: disease, diagnosis, genetics, infection, metabolism, nutrition, prediction, propetology, screening, volatilome