Poster 1066: A Specific Breath Metabolome Signature Identifies Patients With Inflammatory Bowel Diseases
Author Insights from Satya Kurada, MD, Clinical and Research Fellow, Celiac Center, Department of Gastroenterology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (This study was conducted at the Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio in collaboration with Digestive Diseases Institute, Imaging Institute, Lerner Research Institute and Respiratory Institute)
What’s new here and important for clinicians?
Diagnosis and classification of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is often challenging. The exhaled human breath contains more than 3,000 compounds, which may have a potential for serving as biomarkers. We assessed the breath volatile organic compounds (VOCs) using a selective ion flow tube- mass spectrometer (SIFT-MS) in 94 subjects with IBD (Crohn’s disease [CD] and ulcerative colitis [UC]) and controls (inflammatory non-IBD subjects [IC] and healthy control subjects [HC]). Our preliminary analysis observed differences in 8 out 22 VOCs in IBD versus HC, 8 out of 22 volatile compounds in CD versus HC, 3 out of 22 volatile compounds in UC versus HC, 3 out of 22 compounds in IC versus HC, and 2 out of 22 compounds between IBD and IC (See Figure Below).
There was no association of VOC patterns with clinical activity and radiological findings. Interestingly, the breath metabolome dramatically differed between IBD patients with ileal pouch anal anastomosis (IPAA) and IBD patients with their colon in situ, suggesting an important contribution of the colon to VOC generation. These findings may help us develop ‘breath prints’ specific to IBD as a non-invasive tool for diagnosis and classification of IBD.
What do patients need to know?
These preliminary findings may help in the development of “breath prints” specific to IBD that may allow the non-invasive diagnosis of IBD and differentiation from other disorders. We hope this work will lead to easy, simple, reproducible biomarkers, which may be used at the bedside by clinicians in the future.
See figure: Heat map depicting 22 volatile organic compounds in Crohn’s disease (CD) subjects, ulcerative colitis (UC) subjects, other GI inflammatory control (IC) subjects and healthy control (HC) subjects.
Author contact
Satya Kurada MD, Clinical and Research Fellow, Celiac Center, Department of Gastroenterology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
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