Chakraborty, Shirshendu and Banerjee, Dibyajyoti and Ray, Indrani and Sen, Amarnath
(2008)
Detection of biomarker in breath: A step towards noninvasive diabetes monitoring.
Current Science, 94 (2).
pp. 237-242.
ISSN 0011-3891
Abstract
Along with more than two hundred volatile organic compounds (VOCs), acetone is also a normal constituent of breath of healthy individuals, albeit in the sub-ppm range, and its concentration increases in diabetic patients. Considering the importance of breath acetone as a biomarker of diabetes, some studies have already been made to measure breath acetone concentration (and correlate with blood sugar level) using GC-MS. There are a few reports of measuring breath acetone concentration using semiconductor sensor in the background of air (i.e. in the absence of VOCs present in normal breath and hence the question of selectivity remains in the real situation) and at a higher concentration (above 10 ppm). We report excellent sensitivity of sonochemically prepared nanosized gamma-Fe2O3 sensors towards sub-ppm acetone (pathological range) in the background of human breath. Our preliminary results should stimulate further research towards developing cheap, rugged and compact semiconductor sensors for noninvasive monitoring of diabetes.
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