Ion Mobility Spectrometry in Clinical and Emergency Setting: Research and Potential Applications

ABSTRACT

Interest in the use of GC-IMS for the detection of volatiles has seen a rapid expansion over the last decade. The following chapter will focus on classical GC-IMS and its research applications in the potential for diagnosis, rapid testing and biomarker discovery, with an emphasis on breath testing. Breath analysis via GC-IMS has enormous potential in many clinical areas including screening for pulmonary diseases, infections and toxins. Due to the technology's small footprint, robustness in various environments and ease of use, there have been many studies looking at its potential utility in the clinical field, including its use as a screening tool for SARS-CoV-2 infections. There remain limitations to the device usage and data processing which are discussed throughout the chapter. An introduction to its fundamentals, standardisation, breath collection methods and active areas of research and development will be covered. Copyright © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.