Scientists have developed a paper mask that can analyze various health data based on breath alone.
- Californian researchers have created an innovative mask.
- Thanks to sensors, it is able to analyze the health data present in our breath.
- It could be used to monitor the health of people with asthma, COPD or even Covid-19.
Your breath says a lot about you. A team of scientists from the California Institute of Technology has made it their research subject. They have developed a surgical mask made of paper, capable of analyzing our state of health using only the air we exhale. In the review of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), they present this innovation.
“Our breath contains a myriad of exhaled molecular markers”
This mask, called EBCare, captures and analyzes exhaled breath condensate (EBC), the liquid resulting from the condensation of the breath.Our breath contains a myriad of molecular markers exhaled in the form of gases, aerosols or droplets”the authors explain. These can be all kinds of volatile organic compounds, but also pathogens.
“Monitoring a patient’s breathing is something that is done regularly, for example, to assess asthma and other respiratory conditions, explains Wei Gao, co-author of the study. However, this requires the patient to attend a clinic for sample collection, followed by a waiting period to obtain laboratory results.”
Self-cooling mask detects disease and ‘blood alcohol levels’
This time, the EBCare mask allows this monitoring to be carried out continuously, without going to the hospital and without heavy equipment. The techniques used today require the use of ice or active refrigeration to condense the exhaled vapor into liquid, which makes them both bulky and cumbersome. This new mask is self-cooling, thanks to a hydrogel system.Once the breath has been converted to liquid, a series of capillaries, belonging to a class of devices called bioinspired microfluidics, immediately transports the liquid to the sensors for analysis.”explain the authors. Then, the information collected by these sensors is sent to a phone, tablet or computer via Bluetooth.
Through various tests, Californian scientists have demonstrated the effectiveness of this new device for analyzing exhaled air. In particular, they conducted tests on patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma or infected with Covid-19, all of whom showed the benefit of the device.In another study, the team demonstrated that the masks accurately detected blood alcohol levels in human subjects, suggesting that the masks could be used for on-site driving enforcement or other forms of alcohol monitoring.“, they specify.
Innovative mask: an inexpensive and easily tolerable device
For Wei Gao, the pandemic played an important role in the development of this new device.Since Covid-19, people are wearing masks more and more, they recall. We can leverage this increased use of masks for personalized remote monitoring to gain real-time insights into our health.” He cites the example of people with asthma: the mask could be used to monitor levels of nitrite, a chemical that indicates inflammation in the airways. The researcher also believes that it could be used to assess the effectiveness of medical treatment. During the study, all participants said that the mask was comfortable. In addition, Wei Gao says that the device is very inexpensive: “It is designed to cost only about $1 in materials.”
