Potential of Breath Analysis: From Environmental Exposure Assessment to Medical Diagnosis

Exhaled breath analysis is becoming one of the desirable strategies for environmental exposure assessment as well as for clinical diagnosis because it provides a relatively inexpensive, rapid, and noninvasive monitoring method. The presence of specific compounds in a human breath can indicate a recent exposure to pollutants or a disease state of the individual. Breath analysis has attracted a considerable amount of scientific and clinical interest over the past decade. This review describes the potential applications of human breath analysis, including monitoring of environmental exposure to pollutants and clinical diagnosis of diseases, with particular attention to exogenous volatile compounds and endogenous volatile biomarkers.