2008/02/15 by David Smith, Tianshu Wang, Andriy Pysanenko +1 · 1 citation
Chemistry · Engineering · #Advanced Chemical Sensor Technologies #Analytical Chemistry and Chromatography #Mass Spectrometry Techniques and Applications
paper · doi:10.1002/rcm.3434
openalex publication_date 2008/02/15 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
A study has been carried out, involving three healthy volunteers, of the ammonia levels in breath exhaled via the mouth and via the nose and in the static oral cavity using on-line, selected ion flow tube mass spectrometry (SIFT-MS), obviating the problems associated with sample collection of ammonia. The unequivocal conclusion drawn is that the ammonia appearing in the mouth-exhaled breath of the three volunteers is largely generated in the oral cavity and that the ammonia originating at the alveolar interface in the lungs is typically at levels less than about 100 parts-per-billion, which is a small fraction of the total breath ammonia. This leads to the recommendation that exhaled breath analyses should focus on nose-exhaled breath if the objective is to use breath analysis to investigate systemic, metabolic disease.