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Abstract The surgical smoke is commonly generated by electrosurgery, i.e. by the heat-producing device used in operating rooms for cutting tissues and coagulating small blood vessels through the use of high-frequency electrical current. Health effects due to the exposure to surgical smoke were recently recognized, thus the scientific community is currently paying more attention to such research field. In particular, studies focusing on the improvement of the effectiveness of filtration systems and mechanical ventilation systems were carried out, nonetheless, a gap of knowledge on the particle concentration levels in the operating rooms and on the emission rate of the surgical procedures still exists. In the present paper an experimental analysis was performed (i) to estimate the particle emission per unit time for several types of surgery for different aerosol metrics and (ii) to measure the dose of both sub-micron and super-micron particles received by workers and patients. To this purpose, samplings were performed in seven operating rooms located in three different Italian hospitals. The median emission rates in terms of particle number and mass concentrations amongst the surgery procedures investigated varied in the 1.59–3.21 × 1011 part. min−1 and 0.09–0.32 mg min−1 ranges, respectively, leading to corresponding median particle concentration levels of 0.7–1.2 × 104 part. cm−3 and 5–13 μg m−3. Finally, the median particle surface area dose received by personnel working in the operating rooms during the surgery procedures varied from 5 to 12 mm2. Highlights • Estimate of particle emission rates for different types of surgery procedures. • Measurements of the exposure to sub- and super-micron particles in operating rooms. • Estimate of the particle dose received in operating rooms during surgeries. • Median particle number emission rates in the 1.59–3.21 × 1011 part. min−1 range. • Median particle mass emission rates in the 0.09–0.32 mg min−1 range. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Like other pulmonary affections, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is hardly detectable during the first stages of manifestation, usually it is diagnosed observing both the respiratory function and the patient history. In the last years, even in spite of a lack of a clear compound-disease relationship, breath analysis with chemical sensors array have demonstrated the capability to identify some lung diseases. In this paper we illustrate that even in the case of COPD breath contains information that can be usefully exploited for diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: An overview of the scientific literature in the medical field tells us that a large part of electronic nose applications is devoted to breath analysis. A network based study can help testing the validity of this strategy when using many different devices based on identical or different technologies, in view of a use in real clinical practice. The first step is the instrument calibration using a set of key-compounds. In this work a gas sensor array based on quartz microbalance transducers functionalized with metalloporphyrins (ROTV e-nose), and a Cyranose is used simultaneously in a calibration experiment with three ad hoc selected compounds: ethanol, hexane and ethyl acetate, at concentration levels around 1ppm. These tests have demonstrated that limits of detection down to tens of ppb are possible. Moreover, a mapping between the two instruments has been performed through the calculation of a model based on Cyranose data, and applied to the ROTV e-nose data, for the prediction of compound concentrations. This test has shown a good ability in concentrations prediction, with an error lower than 10ppb. In conclusion, this study provides the first step toward quality assurance of e-nose data in the medical setting. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Lung cancer diagnosis via breath analysis has to overcome some issues that can be summarized by two crucial points: (1) further developments for more performant breath sampling technologies; (2) discovering more differentiated volatile fingerprints to be ascribed to specific altered biological mechanisms. The present work merges these two aspects in a pilot study, where a breath volume, sampled via endoscopic probe, is analyzed by an array of non-selective gas sensors. Even if the original non-invasive methods of breath analysis has been laid in favour of the endoscopic means, the innovative technique here proposed allows the analysis of the volatile mixtures directly sampled near the tumor mass. This strategy could open the way for a better understanding of the already obtained discrimination among positive and negative cancer cases. The results obtained so far confirm the established discrimination capacity. This allows to discriminate the different subtypes of lung cancer with 75% of correct classification between adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma. This result suggests that a ‘zoom-in’ on the cancer settled inside the human body can increase the resolution power of key-volatiles detection, allowing the discrimination among different cancer fingerprints. We report this novel technique as a robust support for a better comprehension of the promising results obtained so far and present in literature; it is not to be intended as a replacement for non-invasive breath sampling procedure with the endoscope. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]