Project of the Slovak Research and Development Agency (APVV) SK-AT-0003-08 (project of bilateral scientific cooperation between Austria and Slovakia)

Duration of the project: 01/2009 - 12/2010

Project Summary

Analysis of exhaled breath is non-invasive technique with great potential for clinical diagnosis and therapeutic monitoring. At present, breath analysis is used for the screening of cancer in the  EU-project BAMOD (FP6 project no. 019031). The used analytical procedures are characterized by a variety of technical operating parameters. In particular, the limit of detection (LOD) and the limit of quantitation (LOQ). The variability caused by the measurement process can be described by the probabilistic model of the within-sample distribution. We made preliminary investigations concerning a simple but practical case (measurements of isoprene concentration by Proton Transfer Reaction Mass Spectrometer, Ionimed Analytik Ges.m.b.H., Innsbruck Austria). Based on the formula for computing concentration that reflects principles of the analytical instrument, a theoretical model for the within-sample distribution of concentration was suggested. This model supposes that the distribution is proportional to a quotient of two independent Poisson distributed random variables. The validity of the theoretical model was checked with the empirical data.

The objective of the project is further development of a statistical models, methods and the toolbox for data analysis of exhaled breath concentration patterns, including statistical models for LOD and LOQ determination for different analytical techniques (GC-MS, PTR-MS, SIFT-MS and IMS).