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There is a world-wide epidemic of pulmonary tuberculosis (TB). Once thought to be a near-conquered disease, pulmonary TB is now killing more people than ever, especially those infected with HIV in developing countries.

Although pulmonary TB can be treated and cured with powerful drugs, many sufferers still go untreated because the disease is difficult to detect without sputum tests that can be time-consuming and expensive.

That is why a rapid, accurate, and cost-effective test for pulmonary TB is urgently needed. Breath testing could provide such a test because the mycobacteria that cause pulmonary TB generate a very distinctive pattern of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) when grown in the laboratory.

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID, of the National Institutes of Health) awarded Menssana Research Phase I and II SBIR grants to test the feasibility of this idea. In a multicenter international study, the breath test identified active pulmonary TB with 85% accuracy.

Sites
De La Salle Health Sciences Institute, Cavite, Philippines

University of Santo Tomas Hospital, Manila, Philippines

Hinduja Hospital, Mumbai, India

Homerton University Hospital, London, UK

This point-of-care breath test delivers results within six minutes, and confirmed the results of our previous studies.

Publications

(PDF Document) Point-of-Care Breath Test for Biomarkers of Active Pulmonary Tuberculosis.

Blais J, Chaturvedi A, Pandya M, Schmitt P, Bothamley G, Udwadia Z, Natividad M, Dalay V, and Phillips M

Workshop on TB and HIV Diagnostics in Adult and Pediatric Populations, sponsored by NIH and FDA, Silver Spring, MD (June 29, 2011)

(PDF Document) Breath biomarkers of active pulmonary tuberculosis.

Phillips M, Basa-Dalay V, Bothamley G, Cataneo RN, Lam PK, Natividad MPR, Schmitt P, and Wai J

Tuberculosis (Mar. 2, 2010)

(PDF Document) Volatile biomarkers of pulmonary tuberculosis in the breath.

Phillips M, Cataneo RN, Condos R, Erickson GAR, Greenberg J, La Bombardi V, Munawar MI, and Tietje O

Tuberculosis (2007); 87: 44-52.

(PDF Document) Volatile markers of pulmonary tuberculosis in the breath.

Phillips M, Cataneo RN, Condos R, Ring Erickson GA, Greenberg J, and La Bombardi V

European Respiratory Journal (2004); 24: Suppl. 48, 467s