Medical science is evolving day by day. Every now and then we hear about some ground-breaking inventions. Scientists are working to develop new types of tests to identify diseases. Lately, an invention came to light which will change the definition of diagnostics. Scientists have developed an electronic nose that can detect diseases like liver, lung and colon cancer and many pulmonary diseases.
To detect diseases, this nose has to be applied like a mask on your nose and the disease will be detected in no time.UK-based biotech company Owlstone Medical is developing this nose. The company says that work is also being done to detect COVID-19 with the help of this electronic nose (e-nose).
Many surveys suggest that patients do not feel easy while giving blood, urine and stool samples, but the new test will prove to be very easy for the patients and will also take less time.
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How this will work?
The aforementioned e-nose detects the disease by detecting the various particles coming from the patient’s breath. The basis behind that is when humans exhale, there are more than 3500 Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) in the breath. It consists of extremely small gas particles and microscopic droplets. E-nose detects the chemicals present in Volatile Organic Compounds and detects the diseases.
Years of R&D behind the invention
The idea of creating any such device came to the fore in the 1970s itself, but it took decades to convert this idea into a reality. Programming to recognize volatile organic compounds and creating sensors take very meticulous data collection and collation. Its trial is going on in many countries around the world. The results, especially in the UK, have been impressive.
Developers say, in the next five years, the test done through e-nose will become a mainstream diagnosis method. Scientists say that they are striving to programme it in such a manner that the device can also tell which medicine will be better for the patient according to the disease.
The technique can be used as early detection of cancer
Clinical trials related to breathing-related diagnosis are going on in many countries around the world. It also includes trials related to cancer. The goal of the trial is to detect cancer at its rudimentary stage. If successful, this device will save millions of lives.