ИСТИНА

Exhaled breath aerosol (BA) is a promising target for diagnostic purposes due to its diverse content. It includes both volatile and nonvolatile substances that can serve as a potential markers of different body conditions. In contrast to bronchioscopy and bronchoalveolar lavage and biopsy, BA is collected noninvasively with minimal disturbances for a person. Common way of breath aerosol collection employs cooling (EcoScreen, RTube, TurboDECCS and others) which tends to dilute the sample with condensed water vapor being the major componens of the exhale. Recently we reported on cooling-free condenser that requires no energy supply and no pretreatment and creates turbulent flows for enhanced aerosol condensation. Compared to cooling, the device provides at least one order of magnitude more concentrated sample. The condenser was applied to volunteers with post-COVID-19 syndrome and with cystic fibrosis. Compared to healthy people, groups of interest have shown substantial difference in marker levels (hydrogen peroxide and conductivity).