A non-invasive method for the detection of glucose in human exhaled breath by condensation collection coupled with ion chromatography

An analytical method for the detection of glucose in human exhaled breath by non-invasive condensation collection coupled with ion chromatography was developed. A self-designed exhaled breath condensation device was constructed, through which human exhaled breath was condensed and collected. And the glucose in collected human exhaled breath condensate (EBC) was analyzed by ion chromatography with a pulsed amperometric instrument. The standard EBC collection method was established, and the key factors such as cooling temperature and sampling flow rate during condensation collection were investigated deeply, and a good linear correlation between blood glucose levels and exhaled breath glucose levels was obtained. The intra-day precision was 3.37%, and the inter-day precision was 3.83%. Furthermore, EBC from healthy people and diabetic patients was collected in fasting state and after meal. We found the breath glucose level in healthy volunteers was 0.11–2.34 ng/L and that in diabetic patients was 0.23–135.92 ng/L. In after meal samples, the breath glucose level is 10–100 times higher than that of healthy subjects, which offering the prospect of a non-invasive approach to the monitoring of diabetes.