TEXTO:
Beyond the Breathalyzer
Researchers are mining our exhalations to diagnose disease
Anyone who’s ever had a few too many drinks
knows that a little exhalation can reveal a lot of
information. But the alcohol Breathalyzer, it turns out,
was just the beginning.
[5] A new batch of studies suggests that breath
tests — exhaling into a medical sensor for analysis —
can effectively screen for lung cancer, infections, diabetes
and more. Although researchers have long known that
those diseases alter our bodies’ chemical makeup,
[10] they’re starting to pinpoint the specific ways each alters
our breath. Lung-cancer tumors, for example, produce a
suite of volatile organic compounds that we wind up
exhaling. “We’re starting to discover so many things we
didn’t know were there,” says Dr. Raed Dweik of the
[15] Cleveland Clinic.
Already these tests are used to see if hearttransplant
patients are rejecting the organ, based on
the alkanes they emit, (alkanes are the by-products of
chemical reactions set off by free radicals — unstable,
[20] cell-damaging molecules — that are produced by the
body when it rejects donated organs); if asthma drugs
are working by measuring the amount of the breath’s
nitric-oxide content, ( people with asthma exhale
abnormally high levels of nitric oxide, a gas that regulates
[25] blood flow but may damage cells and cause inflammation
if overproduced in the airways) and if infection-causing
anaerobic bacteria are nesting in the gut (by the hydrogen
they release).
Researchers at the University of Vermont have
[30] proven that a breath-analysis technique can accurately
diagnose bacterial infections such as staph, according
to a study published in the Journal of Breath Research.
“Traditional methods to diagnose deadly, fast-spreading
diseases like tuberculosis require the collection of a
[35] sample that is then used to grow bacteria”, says Dr.
Jane Hill , co-author of the study. “This whole process
can take days for some common bacteria, and even
weeks for tuberculosis. Breath analysis would reduce
the time-to-diagnosis to just minutes.”
[40] But using breath tests to accurately diagnose
diseases like cancer won’t be easy. Breath, after all, is
a potluck of everything emitted by the body: in addition
to potentially telltale compounds, it contains the
emissions of good bacteria that help us digest food and
[45] ward off diseases. As James Carey, a chemistry professor
at the National University of Kaohsiung in Taiwan,
puts it, “Breath is the most complicated mixture on the
planet” — which is why he prefers to analyze emissions
from blood samples to detect sepsis. The challenge is
[50] sorting out the relevant from the irrelevant to reduce the
rate of false positives.
Still, the medical community remains hopeful.
Although breath tests are several years away from patient
testing and would likely be used along with other
[55] diagnostic methods, they’re cheaper and less invasive
than screening options like biopsies. That kind of
convenience will allow more people to get more tests for
disease before it becomes serious – which will ultimately
save more lives.
PARK, Alice. TIME. Oct 7, 2013. p.14, In: Briefing, HEALTH. Adaptado.
“Breath, after all, is a potluck of everything emitted by the body” (l. 41-42)
By using the word “potluck” to describe breath, the author means that
