Electronic nose prediction of a clinical pneumonia score: Biosensors and microbes

Background: The authors performed a prospective study to determine whether breath test analysis using an electronic nose correlates with a clinical pneumonia score. Methods: Exhaled gas was sampled from the expiratory limb of the ventilator in mechanically ventilated surgical intensive care patients and assayed with the electronic nose. Components of a clinical pneumonia score were recorded concurrently. Results: The score predicted by the electronic nose showed good correlation with the actual pneumonia score (r(2) = 0.81). Bland Altman analysis showed a mean bias of 0.0 (limits +/- 2.6). Conclusions: The electronic nose is a new biosensor technology that correlates with a clinical pneumonia score.