Breath Gas Sampling Segmentation for Mass Spectrometry
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Solution Overview
Problem
Breath samples for analysis by mass spectroscopy are contaminated with inspired environmental air, making it difficult to achieve high accuracy due to variations in surrounding air, which cannot be completely removed using it as a reference.
Innovation Solution
Collecting a first breath sample immediately after inspiration, which represents inspired environmental air, and a second breath sample at a later time, which represents alveolar gas, and subtracting the first from the second to isolate pure breath gas for analysis.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If breath samples are collected for mass spectroscopy analysis, then blood vapor detection can be performed, but the samples are contaminated with inspired environmental air causing measurement inaccuracy
Solution Approach 1:
The expired breath is divided into two segments: the initial portion (contaminated with inspired environmental air) and the latter portion (pure alveolar gas). By collecting and analyzing only the latter portion, the harmful contamination is eliminated while preserving the useful alveolar gas components for accurate mass spectroscopy analysis.
Solution Approach 2:
The harmful inspired environmental air is extracted and separated from the breath sample by discarding the initial portion of expired gas. Only the clean latter portion containing pure alveolar gas is collected in the bag for analysis, thereby removing the contamination source while retaining the analyte of interest.
2Measurement precision
If surrounding environmental air is used as reference to remove contamination, then some correction can be made, but complete removal is not achieved due to variations in surrounding air
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of attempting to correct contamination after sampling, the solution performs preliminary action by discarding the initial contaminated portion of expired breath before collection. This ensures that only clean alveolar gas is sampled from the start, eliminating the need for reference samples and post-processing corrections.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This method effectively removes inspired environmental air from breath samples, resulting in substantially pure alveolar gas for accurate analysis, minimizing contamination and variation.
Implementation Method 1
first mass spectral data is obtained by mass spectroscopy of the first breath sample collected in the first bag. The second mass spectral data is obtained by mass spectroscopy of the second breath sample collected in the second bag.
Data Source
AI summary
A method for sampling breath gas, includes collecting a first breath sample in a first bag. The first breath sample is an initial part of expired gas expired after inspiration. Additionally, the method includes collecting a second breath sample in a second bag. The second breath sample is a latter part of the expired gas. The method includes subtracting first mass spectral data obtained by mass spectroscopy of the first breath sample collected in the first bag from second mass spectral data obtained by mass spectroscopy of the second breath sample collected in the second bag.