Detecting Gastric Disorders from Breath
‘Pyro-Breath’ By SNBNCBS
For the early and quick diagnosis of Helicobacter pylori infection residing in the human stomach, a new-generation non-invasive diagnostic strategy for diagnosing through breath analysis has been developed by the researchers at S. N. Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences (SNBNCBS), Kolkata an autonomous institute under the Department of Science & Technology, Govt. of India.
The existing painful endoscopic and biopsy-based tests can be obviated through this new strategy called ‘Pyro-Breath’, which can detect the bacterial as well as its related complicacies like ulcer disease and non-ulcerous dyspepsia.
Certain types of cancer and peptic ulcer disease could be developed due to helicobacter pylori infection in the human stomach. Early diagnosis is essential to prevent complications as this bacterial infection is often asymptomatic.
A simple residual gas analyzer (RGA) is utilized in the ‘Pyro-Breath’ technology, which scans specific ‘Breath-Print Masses (BPMs)’ in real-time. These BPMs are associated strongly with the start of H. pylori infection and many gastric disorders like ulcer and gastritis.
It is possible to monitor noninvasively whether a person has H. pylori bacterial infection or a specific type of gastric disorder or both, looking at the nature of the various
exhaled molecules or their isotopic species (breath-prints). This would be an attractive alternative diagnosis method for anyone including seniors, pregnant women, children, and infants, as this is a non-invasive and painless method. The work was published in the Journal of Breath Research and was done by Dr. Manik Pradhan and his research group at SNBNCBS.Further painful and invasive endoscopic methods can be avoided as this breath test method can be ‘game-changer’ in non-invasive medical diagnosis and may also help to follow-up the patients after standard therapies. The group has filed a patent for this technological innovation.
To ensure the translation of the new breath analysis technology, for clinical testing, Dr. Pradhan has established research collaborations with medical scientists. With accuracy better than 96% when compared with ‘gold-standard’ endoscopic tests, the group has found new ‘Breath-Prints’ and estimated ‘Risk-Factors’ of various gastric disorders for noninvasive diagnosis of these diseases.
For large-scale clinical trials, one prototype breath analyzer among the few prototype breath analyzers made has currently been installed in a reputed hospital at Salt Lake, Kolkata. For the non-invasive diagnosis of H. pylori bacterial infection as well as gastric disorders, breath tests are being performed on patients on a regular basis. The transfer of technology (TOT) is currently under process through NRDC, New Delhi and three startup companies have already shown their interests to take up this technology for commercialization.
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Detecting Gastric Disorders from Breath – ‘Pyro-Breath’ By SNBNCBS
