Sepsis is defined as a systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) in response to infection and is associated with high rates of morbidity and mortality if not treated quicker. New methods are needed that reliably speed up the diagnostic process and limit costs. Odour-based assays could potentially fill this diagnostic niche. An E-Nose is an instrument that consists of a sensor and pattern recognition software that quantifies and classifies the gas. The sample peaks are produced mostly in the first ten minutes and thus is rapid compared to the gas chromatographic (GC) techniques. In this study, an E- Nose GC-sensor system (OdoReaders) was used as diagnostic tool for Haemophilus influenza Serotype B (Hib) sepsis. E-Nose sampled the headspace VOCs originating from Hib cultures grown on human serum. The first test showed strong baseline drift and no baseline recovery and thus a process of method development with different E-Nose setting was carried out and the sensor responses were analyzed using the automated retention time function in the software. The results mostly showed differences between control yet there was no Hib dose dependent increase or decrease in peak area. In
addition, there were no viable cell counts and thus it could not be demonstrated whether VOCs detected were from live Hib. The project apart from detecting VOCs in sample provided information about the two crucial components of E-Nose. One the growth condition (less volatile) of Hib and the other is the detection software in E-Nose.
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