Measuring hydrogen peroxide in exhaled breath condensate in COPD
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Assessment and validation of a device for measuring hydrogen peroxide in exhaled breath condensate in patients with COPD
IRAS ID
303156
Contact name
Omar Usmani
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Imperial College London
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 11 months, 31 days
Research summary
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the performance of an Exhaled Breath Condensate (EBC) device. EBC measurements can be used for the assessments of lung inflammation in asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Current assessments are based on patient symptoms and simple spirometry tests. Unfortunately, these tests are not directly correlated to lung inflammation in these diseases.
Exhaled Breath Condensate (EBC) serves as a simple and non-invasive measurement which can potentially inform clinical decision-making. EBC measures hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) concentrations in exhaled breath and significantly higher concentrations are found in COPD patients. Following a successful pilot study and a clinical assessment in healthy volunteers we now want to evaluate the device in 15 patients with COPD. We want to evaluate the consistency of 3 measurements a month apart in a similar manner to the previous study with healthy volunteers and we will be including a further 15 healthy volunteers in this study.
Research Summary:
Introduction Hydrogen peroxide is produced naturally at very low levels and can be detected in exhaled breath. Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are prone to sudden deteriorations in their condition- “exacerbations”- which arise from infections and other environmental factors.
Patients frequently need hospital in-patient treatment as a result of these exacerbations. There is good evidence that levels of hydrogen peroxide are elevated immediately prior to exacerbation. Early warning could enable prophylactic treatment in the community and better patient outcomes.
Imperial College London have developed a new device for condensing a small sample of exhaled breath. A novel biosensor is used to measure the hydrogen peroxide levels in the sample.
The purpose for this study was to collect breath samples from 15 participants with COPD and 15 healthy participants. Samples were analysed using our new instrument and the results compared with established, so-called gold standard techniques.Results
Hydrogen peroxide in EBC were found to be significantly higher in COPD patients compare to healthy patients before correction. After correction hydrogen peroxide in COPD patients were still significantly higher. The correction algorithm in the device has no effect on EBC hydrogen peroxide in terms of categorising COPD and healthy patient.
Month to month variation was insignificant between COPD patients (month 1 to 2, p = 0.965; month 2 to 3, p = 0.0624), but significant for healthy patient between month 1 and 2 (month 1 to 2, p = 0.026; month 2 to 3, p = 0.103).
Nitrite concentration in COPD patients has a larger average and variants and was found to be significantly higher than healthy patients (T-test p value = 0.00824).REC name
South Central - Berkshire Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
21/SC/0406
Date of REC Opinion
23 Dec 2021
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion