Biochemical pathways of breath ammonia (NH3) generation in patients with end-stage renal disease undergoing hemodialysis

Breath ammonia (NH3) has been proposed as a potential biomarker in monitoring hemodialysis (HD) adequacy, since a strong correlation between blood urea and mouth-exhaled breath NH3 has been observed in patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) undergoing HD. However, the biochemical pathways for breath NH3 generation from blood urea have not been demonstrated. In this study, we show a strong correlation (rs = 0.77, p < 0.001) between blood and salivary urea, indicating that salivary urea levels reflect blood urea levels. Salivary urea is in turn strongly correlated to salivary ammonia (NH4+ + NH3) in most of the patients. This confirms that the hydrolysis of urea by urease generates ammonia in the oral cavity. A further strong correlation between salivary ammonia and breath NH3 indicates that salivary ammonia evaporates into gas phase and turns to breath NH3. Therefore, blood urea is a major biochemical source of breath NH3. Since breath NH3 is generated predominantly in the oral cavity, the levels of breath NH3 are influenced significantly by the patient's oral condition including urease activity and salivary pH. Our results agree with previous studies that have shown a connection between salivary urea and breath NH3.