Menssana Research Inc. products

The Heartsbreath^TM test is a non-invasive breath test for breath biomarkers that predict the probability of grade 3 rejection in heart transplant recipients who received their transplants in the preceding year. It employs a breath collection apparatus (BCA) for collection of volatile organic compounds in breath onto a sorbent trap, as well as for the collection of a separate sample of room air.

It takes 300 screening mammograms to discover one woman with breast cancer. A breath test might improve this very low yield. Researchers have known for many years that women with breast cancer have abnormal volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in their breath. Clinical studies at Menssana Research have shown that these breath VOCs can accurately identify women with early stage breast cancer or an abnormal screening mammogram.

Seasonal influenza is a common respiratory illness that presents with annual cough and fever epidemics. In the USA, the total economic burden of annual influenza epidemics amounted to $87.1 billion in 2003, arising mainly from outpatient visits, hospitalization, time lost from work, and premature death. The economic and clinical burdens of influenza epidemics may get worse in the future, because novel influenza viruses such as Influenza A Virus, H1N1 Subtype threaten world-wide pandemics.

A radiologic or nuclear event, such as an accident involving radioactive materials or a `dirty bomb` explosion, could injure a large number of people. Emergency responders would need to rapidly screen and identify those who have been exposed to radiation. This will require a new kind of screening test to measure radiation effects on the human body.

There is a world-wide epidemic of pulmonary tuberculosis (TB). Once thought to be a near-conquered disease, pulmonary TB is now killing more people than ever, especially those infected with HIV in developing countries. That ’s why there ’s an urgent need for a rapid, accurate and cost-effective point of care test for pulmonary TB is Breath testing could provide such a test because the mycobacteria that cause pulmonary TB generate a very distinctive pattern of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) when grown in the laboratory.