Breath analysis by ultra-sensitive broadband laser spectroscopy detects SARS-CoV-2 infection
This provides a potential rapid, non-invasive diagnostic tool for COVID-19, though it is incremental as it applies an existing spectroscopic method to a new medical application.
The researchers tackled the problem of rapid COVID-19 testing by using cavity-enhanced direct frequency comb spectroscopy to analyze breath samples, achieving an area under the ROC curve of 0.849(4) for detecting SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Rapid testing is essential to fighting pandemics such as COVID-19, the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Exhaled human breath contains multiple volatile molecules providing powerful potential for non-invasive diagnosis of diverse medical conditions. We investigated breath detection of SARS-CoV-2 infection using cavity-enhanced direct frequency comb spectroscopy (CE-DFCS), a state-of-the-art laser spectroscopic technique capable of a real-time massive collection of broadband molecular absorption features at ro-vibrational quantum state resolution and at parts-per-trillion volume detection sensitivity. Using a total of 170 individual breath samples (83 positive and 87 negative with SARS-CoV-2 based on Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction tests), we report excellent discrimination capability for SARS-CoV-2 infection with an area under the Receiver-Operating-Characteristics curve of 0.849(4). Our results support the development of CE-DFCS as an alternative, rapid, non-invasive test for COVID-19 and highlight its remarkable potential for optical diagnoses of diverse biological conditions and disease states.