Microcontroller-based real-time alveolar breath sampling system

In spite of its potential as a non-invasive, high throughput evaluation method for diagnosis of various metabolic conditions and diseases, breath analysis still remains underutilized and underdeveloped. This is largely attributed to the poor correlation between the identified biomarker compounds and the associated pathology, lack of adequate instruments capable of collecting a standardized breath sample and limitations in detecting and interpreting breath analysis data. This paper presents a microcontroller-based, real-time breath sampling system capable of selectively sampling over multiple breath cycles, only the deep alveolar air that is known to contain Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) of clinical/diagnostic interest and diverting dead space air away from the VOCs detecting instrumentation. By addressing the limitation associated with producing a repeatable standardized breath sample in the existing breath sampling devices, this work seeks to resolve one of the fundamental requirements necessary for implementing a Point-of-Care (POC) diagnostic breath analyzer.