Analysis of exhaled VOCs from health and patients may help building association between VOCs and different diseases condition, which could offer a possibility of noninvasive monitoring of disease. VOCs were collected in 30 healthy subjects and 60 patients with upper respiratory tract infection. Analysis of 97 VOCs was
performed by gas chromatography and mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The concentration of alkanes, alkenes, halogenated hydrocarbon, oxygenated hydrocarbons and aromatic hydrocarbons in health and patients breath was analyzed. Analysis of variance (ANOVA), principal component analysis (PCA) were used to analyze the VOC differences from patients and healthy ones. The results show that the concentration of isoprene differ among patients, healthy ones and indoor air (P<0.05). Patients show higher concentration of n-pentane compared to healthy ones (P<0.05). Patients with bacterial upper respiratory tract infection show higher concentration of propanal compared to healthy ones. The results of PCA show that there were significant VOC differences between patients with upper respiratory tract infection and healthy ones (P=0.019), but no differences between bacterial and non-bacterial upper respiratory tract infection.
