Chapters authored
Molecular Diagnostics of Pulmonary Diseases Based on Analysis of Exhaled Breath Condensate
Measurements of biomarkers in exhaled breath condensate (EBC) extend a novel route for monitoring lung physiology and provide a beneficial insight into the pathophysiology of a specific disease. From the medicinal point of view, biomarkers present in EBC depict rather the processes occurring in lungs than those in the entire system. Therefore, particular profiles of exhaled biomarkers (e.g. cys-LTs, LTB4, 8-isoprostane, etc.) apparently reveal information exclusively applicable to differential lung disease diagnoses. This chapter describes the developed analytical method being applied to a clinical study for differential diagnostics of various phenotypes of asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lung cancer, etc. In particular, having determined cys-LTs and LXs by the described method, and having applied them as biomarkers of bronchial asthma, their distinctive potential was demonstrated to differentially diagnose the specific disease, clearly suggesting this method to be reckoned as a beneficial alternative to existing diagnostic methods. Consecutively, the developed method was expanded to other asthma markers as aldehydes, nitrotyrosine, 8-isoprostane, PGE2, adenosine and finally, a supplementary study was carried out, engaging in detecting serotonin. The multi-marker screening and importance in the diagnostics of pulmonary diseases are referenced in the text as well.
Part of the book: Biomarker