Breath test

Breath-analysis testing may prove to be an effective, non-invasive method for detecting the damaging lung-bacteria growth seen in cystic fibrosis, UC Irvine researchers have found.

By using a chemical analysis method developed for air-pollution testing, UCI chemists and pediatricians have found that people with cystic fibrosis exhale higher concentrations of sulphur compounds from their lungs than do people who don't have the disease.

These compounds, called sulphides, are known to be produced by bacteria, and lung disease in cystic fibrosis is accompanied by bacterial infections that cause chronic damage. The researchers found that the worse the pulmonary function in the cystic fibrosis patient, the higher the sulphide concentration in the breath sample, suggesting an increased amount of bacterial growth in the lungs.

"Early detection and antibiotic therapy has been promoted as a means to delay chronic bacterial lung growth and prolong life, and breath analysis may be an effective first step toward treatment," said Dr. Dan Cooper, a pediatric pulmonologist at UCI Medical Center, who led the study with F. Sherwood Rowland, the Donald Bren Research Professor of Chemistry, and fellow chemistry professor Donald Blake. "In the long term, these findings on sulphide levels also might help uncover some of the underlying mechanisms of the disease."