Low Temperature Plasma Desorption/Ionization Mass Spectrometry for Quantitative Analysis of Exhaled Breath Collected on Filter Substrates

摘要

Analysis of exhaled human breath is a rapidly growing field in analytical science and has great potential for rapid and non-invasive clinical diagnosis and drug monitoring. The LTP probe has been demonstrated as a powerful analytical tool for direct analysis of a wide variety of chemicals. In previous study, LTP MS for real-time quantitative analysis of vaproic acid (VPA) metabolites in exhaled breath was successfully developed. Mass spectrometers, however, are not yet widely available for in-situ analysis in the field. This presentation will further report the application of LTP-MS for offline quantitative analysis of exhaled breath. The exhaled breath from a volunteer under VPA treatment was flowed through the filter, and it was then exposed to the LTP effluent for desorption/ionization. The effect of working conditions, geometry of LTP source, and different filter paper materials were characterized for signal intensity optimization.