Diagnosing diseases in its early stage is extremely important for effective patient identification and their treatment. Lack of patient compliance in existing diagnostic methods, limits immediate diagnosis, making it critical and mandatory for the development of non-invasive diagnostic tools. One of the most promising non-invasive diagnostic methods that has attracted great research interest in the last few years, especially with Covid, is breath analysis; the method detects gas-analytes such as exhaled volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and inorganic gasses that are considered to be important biomarkers for various types of diseases. The diagnostic ability of gas-pattern detection using analytical techniques and especially sensors can help in identifying many critical diseases, helping patients to combat them in early stages.
This article provides an up-to-date overview of the main categories of sensors studied for disease diagnosis applications via the detection of exhaled gas-analytes and to highlight the role of nanomaterials used in breath detection.
