Just With Exhale You Can Identified TBC

The most often Tuberculosis diagnosis method used is the sputum examination. However, since this method is considered inefficient then a team of researchers from the United States created a diagnostic method that is simpler and faster with the TBC of patients.

This simple test is claimed to be able to diagnose lung infections such as tuberculosis within a few minutes, not to mention many weeks as well as the usual method of diagnosis.

By using mice as experimental material, known test can find traces of various types and strains of bacteria in the lungs of mice with just a breath test.

"Traditional methods are used to diagnose an infection caused by bacteria in the lungs usually requires a number of bacterial samples. Later bacteria will be grown and then isolated for biochemical then tested to be classified as well as see how much resistance to antibiotics," said Dr. Jane Hill, one a researcher from the University of Vermont.

"Though it took to days or weeks before you can tell if it's bacterial samples were found to be the causative agent of tuberculosis. Breath analysis, however this will reduce the overall time of diagnosis is a few minutes," he added, as quoted by the Daily Mail on Sunday (13/01/2013).

Specifically, the researchers analyzed the volatile organic compound (VOC) present in the two types of bacteria that can infect the lungs are Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus. Then the mice were exposed to either of these bacteria breath samples were taken over a period of 24 hours.

As a result, there has been a significant difference between the profiles breath mice infected with uninfected mice both bacteria. But from there, researchers can show that this test can not only provide information on the species of bacteria in the lungs but also identified two different strains of bacteria.

"In fact, I suspect that we can also distinguish between infections caused by bacteria, viruses and fungi in the lungs with this test. But to meet the targets that we now collaborate with fellow researchers to take samples of the patient, especially to show the advantages and disadvantages of analysis breath in a more comprehensive, "said Dr. Hill.