Introduction

Device for non invasive collection of exhaled breath. The individual has to breath normally into the Pneumopipe for three minutes. After this 3 minutes the exhaled breath has been collected into a cartridge which can be stored, delivered or measured by thermally desorbing its content into an instrument for gas and vapour analysis.

Technical features

Exhaled breath analysis, a non-invasive diagnostic procedure, is based upon a sampling device for breath collection, an apparatus for the sample delivery into the measure chamber and a gas sensor array. The Pneumopipe is a device for exhaled breath collection. The volatile mixture composing the exhaled breath is entrapped onto an adsorbing cartridge via Pneumopiepe from an individual normally breathing into a mouthpiece for three minutes. This procedure is very simple and cartridges outperform sampling bags in terms of preservation and transportability. Moreover, a thermal desorption process of the volatiles adsorbed on the cartridge can partially separate them by a given temperature profile. This separation, performed by the desorbing apparatus, improves sensor resolution via a preconcentration strategy.

Possible Applications

• Diagnosis, monitoring and follow-up of many different diseses;
• Use with scopes cited above in:
  • Point-of-care;
  • Drugstore;
  • Ambulatories.

Advantages

• Non invasive at all;
• Standard procedure;
• Collection of exhaled breath on cartridges which can be stored and delivered;
• The cartridge collected so far can be measured with whatever instrument for gas and vapour analysis.