New commentary on asthma breathomics review, published in Pediatric Pulmonology Journal
University of East Anglia-based PhD student, Adam Peel, has co-authored a systematic search of the asthma breathomics literature, to discover whether all relevant studies had been identified.
Breathomics: what we already know
Cells in the lungs - and elsewhere in the body - produce chemical compounds many of which are subsequently exhaled on the breath. Study of these ‘breathprints’ offers a glimpse into the cellular activity of our bodies. This relatively new field is known as breathomics and has the potential to provide useful information on disease processes including that of asthma.
Review papers summarising research can be influential in areas of newly emerging technology such as this, helping inform the direction of future research. A recent review of asthma breathomics presented evidence on the accuracy of exhaled breath compounds in the diagnosis of asthma, reporting predictive accuracies of 80-100%. However, reviews - as with all research - can be subject to bias. One possible source of bias is through the identification and selection of studies.
What the researchers did
Adam and co-authors conducted a systematic search of the asthma breathomics literature to discover whether all relevant studies had been identified and included.
Findings
The researchers identified only one further study which would have been unlikely to affect the conclusions of the review. Breathomics holds great potential for use in asthma diagnostics but there is a need now to confirm the findings of these studies in research with independent participants. Success in this would mark an important step in the application of breathomics to asthma and to the development of personalised medicine.
Links
Link to the full paper on the Pediatric Pulmonology Journal website