00:00 Images:
Cu “School of Medicine Hartshill Campus Postgraduate
Medicine” sign
Professors
walk towards and into new building
Cu
“School of Medicine Hartshill Campus Medical Research
Unit” sign
Cu
SIFT-MS machine
Volunteer
into room
Breath
test begins
Guide Voice: Professors David Smith
and Patrik Spanel of Keele University’s Institute for Science
and Technology in Medicine, are the inventors of a revolutionary
breath diagnosis technique, which is now being used for the first
time in a clinical environment.
They were working in astrophysics studying
interstellar molecules, when they realised their work could have a
medical application, and they developed the technique known as
SIFT-MS.
Using an instrument they designed themselves, this
technique measures trace gases, or metabolites, present in the
breath. It is so sensitive that it is capable of detecting gases
present at a fraction of one part in a billion of the breath gas,
which is ten thousand times more sensitive than a standard
breathalyser used for alcohol testing.
With the installation of two devices in this new
patient facility at Keele University, in the West Midlands, their
research will advance exponentially.
00:50 SOT Professor David Smith, Institute for Science
and Technology and Medicine, Keele University -
“The development of the instrumentation and technology
has had to take place through the analysis of the breath of
volunteers. This is a critical procedure you have to do anyway but
with a new building we now will have the facility to bring in
patients, sick patients, in labs which are properly prepared to
receive patients and then to do on line real time analysis on their
breath and hopefully diagnose particular disease
states.”
01:21 Images:
Volunteer doing breath test
Cu
computer screen
Guide Voice: Already they have learnt a lot
about renal disease, their breath analysis system can help to
measure the effectiveness of kidney dialysis for example, and their
research is developing fast.
01:32 SOT Professor Patrik Spanel, Institute of Science
and Technology in Medicine, Keele University -
“Already we can detect maybe 10 different metabolites
present in breath like ammonia, aceytone, isoprene, and some
metabolites that are a clear marker of some disease like hydrogen
cyanide and even these can actually serve as valuable markers of
various conditions when they are elevated outside the normal
range.”
01:59 Images:
Cu computer screen
Professor
Patrik Spanel and Professor David Smith analysing results on
computer scree
Cu
on breath tubes
Volunteer
doing breath test
Cu
“ Concentration distributions of common breath
metabolites
Guide Voice: One major advantage this technique
has over other ways of diagnosing illnesses is that its
non-invasive, the patient simply breathes into a tube, making it
particularly useful in paediatric medicine, where children might
recoil from invasive procedures like injections.
Another key benefit is that there is no time lag. Instead of
waiting for samples to be analysed in a lab, the SIFT–MS
results are available online and in real time, so the doctor can
get a read out immediately. While renal disease is an initial area
of study, another key area will be in studying respiratory
illnesses in children.
02:33 SOT Professor David Smith -
“The two main areas that our resident paediatricians in
this area are interested in are asthma and cystic fibrosis in young
people. So what we’ll be doing now in the new facility here
to bring the children in and to look at the breath metabolites
online and in real time and to look for molecules that are
indicative of these diseases, the idea being that if you can do
that simply and non-invasively you can monitor therapy. You can
give them the appropriate drug therapy and watch whether or not the
disease is diminishing. This is the essential point about doing
these tests now with this instrumentation online, it’s
straightforward and it’s non-invasive."
03:24 Images:
Professor David Smith and Professor Patrik Spanel analysing SIFT-MS
machine’s interior
Professor
Patrik Spanel putting lid back on machine
Guide Voice: The sheer size of the machinery
required was one of the limitations in developing this technique in
the past, but today its down to a manoeuvrable size, and they think
it could be reduced further in the future to the equivalent of a
shoe box which could make wider distribution and use
possible.
While clinical use is still in the early stages, we might one
day see a breath analysis device in every GP’s surgery, as a
standard means of diagnosis.
03:47 Sot Professor David Smith - "A
major move would be into primary care, which is in the GP’s
surgery,, for example, to screen the population for diseases such
as diabetes. It is thought that 10% of the population has diabetes,
most being undiagnosed. A breath test for acetone, for example,
couls pick this up in its early stage so we can imagine a small
instrument in a GP’s surgery and the breath of all the
patients that came through could be analysed to check whether or
not they have the early stage of this disease. This is a screening
procedure similar to that carried out for breast cancer using
X-rays."
04:32 Images:
Cu SIFT-MS machine
Cu
computer screen showing results
Volunteer
doing breath test
Guide Voice: So what began as a means of
investigating interstellar space, is now turning into a very
practical means of evaluating health here on Earth.
04:41 Ends
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