Analysis of diabetic patient's breath with conducting polymer sensor array

A portable gas analyzing system has been developed using conducting polymer (polypyrrole) sensor array that can be possible to analyze diabetic patient's breath. The expired breathe of diabetics often smells like decaying apples, which give off acetone. The polypyrrole thin film sensors with different thickness, which had been synthesized by chemical polymerization, were employed to detect acetone. Baseline was calibrated from dry air. The electrical signals of sensors were shown as a voltage variation rate, when the acetone was detected by the portable gas analyzing system. The sensing characteristics of acetone using conducting polymer sensor array were measured, and showed the possibility of a portable gas sensing system to check the breath of diabetic patients. The discrimination between patients and normal persons can be achieved, and easily interpreted by the PCA with low computational efforts. A significant difference was shown between the diabetic patients and normal person. Throughout the experimental trails, the portable gas analyzing system has been shown the possibility of potential diagnostic tool for the case of diabetes mellitus. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.