IONICON PTR-TOF instruments deployed for COVID-19 detection in breath

There is a high probability that this disease can be detected in the exhaled breath but also monitoring the impact of treatment or medication is highly relevant.

Sampling exhaled breath is non-invasive and simple. But the analysis is the challenge: Several hundred volatile compounds have so far been identified in exhaled breath and their range of concentrations, typically in the parts-per-billion range, are a challenge to most modern analyzers.

IONICON PTR-TOF systems are particularly well suited for breath gas analysis: Their detection limits and linearity range match the concentrations typically found in breath. Their high mass resolving power allows to separate isobaric compounds. Moreover, in addition to offline analysis, where breath is collected in a container and then analyzed, the high sensitivity and fast response time of these systems allows to analyze breath online and in real-time. This provides immediate results and avoids any complications often arising from sample collection and storage. Using an IONICON PTR-TOF 6000 X2, several hundred compounds can be measured simultaneously from a single exhalation with limits of detection in the ppt range (1 ppt = 0.001 ppb).

The rapid detection of COVID-19-specific breath VOCs would be a great step forward for diagnostic purposes and a spectrum of VOCs could be used for monitoring disease progression or response to conventional or investigational drugs. Since therapies for COVID-19 are experimental at this stage, directly monitoring the effect of a therapeutic drug speeds up the process to develop an efficient treatment for COVID-19.

“We use an IONICON PTR-TOF system to monitor breath VOCs in ventilated patients with COVID-19.”,
reports Dr. Stanislas Grassin Delyle a breath researcher working at Hôpital Foch in Suresnes, France and University Paris-Saclay (UVSQ).

“The direct and fast measurement of so many breath VOCs at the same time allows us to study the progression of the disease and  the response to therapeutic strategies.”