Britta Christina Brugger, Noriane A. Sievi, Sarah Basler, Patrick Baumgartner, Jonas Herth, Felix Schmidt, Kapil Dev Singh, Pablo Sinues and Malcolm Kohler

Metabolic alterations in pneumonia assessed by breath analysis

This study explores real-time breath metabolomics as a non-invasive approach for monitoring metabolic changes associated with pneumonia and recovery. Using Super SESI coupled to a Q Exactive Plus Orbitrap mass spectrometer, SESI-HRMS breath profiles from 47 patients were analyzed during acute pneumonia and again after clinical recovery.

Breath analysis revealed reproducible changes between acute pneumonia and post-recovery states, with 104 mass-spectral features showing significant longitudinal differences. The results support real-time breathomics as a promising approach for capturing biochemical changes during disease progression and recovery, while larger multicenter studies are required to assess its potential for non-invasive pneumonia monitoring.

Kim Arnold, Alejandro Gómez-Mejia, Miguel de Figueiredo, Julien Boccard, Kapil Dev Singh, Serge Rudaz, Pablo Sinues & Annelies S. Zinkernagel

This study refines the application of the non-invasive Secondary Electrospray Ionization-High Resolution Mass Spectrometry (SESI-HRMS) methodology for real-time and early detection of human respiratory bacterial pathogens in the respiratory tract of a mouse infection model