Development of non-invasive point-of-care sampling and analysis of biological fluids


                        Michal Gregus^1, Frantisek Foret^2, Petr Kuban^1,2

                                                 ^

^1Department of Chemistry, Masaryk University, Kotlarska 2, 611 37 Brno, Czech Republic,
gregus@mail.muni.cz

^2Institute of Analytical Chemistry of the CAS, v. v. i., Veveri 97, Brno, 602 00, Czech Republic


Exhaled breath is probably the most abundant diagnostic sample and belongs to completely
non-invasive human biological samples (other non-invasive samples: human sweat, saliva, urine). On
average, 10,000 L of air is inhaled and subsequently exhaled by a person every day. Except O[2],
CO[2] and other gases, the exhaled breath contains water vapors and hundreds of different compounds
exo- and endogenous origin in trace concentration. Part of the exhaled breath (mainly water, water
soluble volatile gases, CO[2] and aerosolized particles of airway lining fluid) and can be
transformed into a liquid phase by simple procedure based on cooling and subsequent condensation of
exhaled air - exhaled breath condensate (EBC). The aerosolized particles contribute to the
non-volatile EBC constituents, such as inorganic ions, small organic molecules, proteins. The
collection of EBC sample is relatively simple procedure, in which a person exhales into a sampling
device – cooled condensation tube, on the walls of which the water vapor containing dissolved
compounds condenses and is eventually collected for the analysis. In our group we have developed
in-house build EBC sampler with maximum simplicity, low cost and wide availability of the
consumables. EBC samples obtained from patients with various respiratory diseases (chronic
obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, pulmonary fibrosis, sarcoidosis, cystic fibrosis) were
compared with the EBC samples from a group of healthy individuals. Another objective was to develop
a portable capillary electrophoresis system (P-CE) equipped with C4D detection that allows repeated
injections of microliter volumes of biological fluids.


Acknowledgement

The authors acknowledge the financial support from the Czech Academy of Sciences (Institutional
research plan RVO: 68081715), the Programme EEA and Norway Grants – EEA Scholarship Programme;
Bilateral Scholarship Programme (NF-CZ07-INS-6-321-2016) and the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic
(Grant No. P206/13/21919S).