Ambient Ionization

Compact Mass Spectrometry for Fast, Quantitative VOC Screening

Breath analysis is a valuable and widely-used technique that is gaining popularity in medical diagnostics, sports science, substance abuse and other fields where immediate, reliable detection of a variety of in-vivo compounds and their metabolites is required.

However, the actual analysis can be complicated because of the type of data required, the need to sample directly from humans and animals, and the need for real-time access to proximate analytical equipment.

In this recent study by Loughborough University, breath was sampled directly from test subjects into Advion’s expression Compact Mass Spectrometer (CMS). The data collected during this pilot study was very positive and resulted in the go-ahead of a larger study of real-time breath profiling of a much greater population of subjects. Results were superior to those acquired by collection and concentration on TD tubes and then desorbing into large, expensive mass spectrometer systems costing more than 4 times that of Advion’s CMS.