BACKGROUND Helicobacter pylori is implicated as the causative agent for most duodenal and gastric ulcers. Invasive (endoscopy and biopsy) and noninvasive (serology, breath test) methods are currently available for definitive diagnosis of infectious peptic ulcer disease. METHODS Twenty-six patients with chronic gastritis symptoms underwent upper endoscopy, biopsy, rapid urease test, and [14C]u...

For detection of small quantities of alkanes that are present in expired breath, these gases have hitherto been concentrated, either by passing large volumes of breath through a liquid-nitrogen-cooled precolumn or by use of a closed collection system. Here, we describe a technique for analyzing small volumes of gas from single-breath samples from humans, in which no precolumn is required. Resul...

Background Measures of left ventricular cardiac mechanics such as strains and torsion are becoming increasingly important for assessing heart function. Cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) can be used to quantify cardiac mechanics using several methods such as tagged CMR or cine Displacement Encoding with Stimulated Echoes (DENSE). These images are generally acquired during an end-expiratory breath...

Breath-holding spells are episodes of brief, involuntary cessations of breathing that occur in children in response to stimuli such as fear or injury. They are usually benign, and although very rarely, breath-holding spells accompany deteriorative neurological diseases. Here, we present two patients having infantile neuroaxonal dystrophy and breath-holding spells. Presence of the common respira...

We studied several relevant biological aspects of breath-alcohol, analysis in 55 healthy men and women, after alcohol ingestion and during breathalcohol analysis with a typical 4th-generation instrument. We measured breath volumes, delivery pressures, and end-expiratory temperatures, with the following findings: End-expiratory temperature, 32.4135.69 #{176}C (mean, 34.53 #{176}C); forced vital ...

Breath analysis is becoming increasingly established as a means of assessing metabolic, biochemical and physiological function in health and disease. The methods available for these analyses exploit a variety of complex physicochemical principles, but are becoming more easily utilised in the clinical setting. Whilst some of the factors accounting for the biological variation in breath metabolit...

1. Immediately after breath-holding at end-expiratory level, there is a certain period of no particular respiratory sensation which is terminated by the onset of an unpleasant sensation and followed by progressive discomfort during breath-holding. This period, defined as the time from the start of voluntary breath-holding to the point where the onset of an unpleasant sensation occurs, is design...

Thomson, Stuart, Mary J. Morrell, Jeremy J. Cordingley, and Stephen J. Semple. Ventilation is unstable during drowsiness before sleep onset. J Appl Physiol 99: 2036–2044, 2005. First published July 14, 2005; doi:10.1152/japplphysiol.01040.2004.—Ventilation is unstable during drowsiness before sleep onset. We have studied the effects of transitory changes in cerebral state during drowsiness on b...

OBJECTIVES The value of visual inspection of ventilator waveforms in detecting patient-ventilator asynchronies in the intensive care unit has never been systematically evaluated. This study aims to assess intensive care unit physicians' ability to identify patient-ventilator asynchronies through ventilator waveforms. DESIGN Prospective observational study. SETTING Intensive care unit of a U...

The visualising of breath using digital in-line holography is challenging due to the issues of the relative scale of the human breath in relation to the recording area of the hologram. In this collaborative project between artist Jayne Wilton and physicists Professor Peter Hobson and Dr Ivan Reid a number of approaches, including the use of spatial filtering (Hobson and Hong 1988), are being us...