WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A new laser analyzer might be able to help doctors detect cancer, asthma or other diseases by sampling a patient's breath, U.S. researchers reported on Tuesday.
The device uses mirrors to bounce the laser's light back and forth until it has touched every molecule a patient exhales in a single breath, the team reported in the journal Optics Express.
This can help detect minute traces of compounds that can point to various diseases, including cancer, asthma, diabetes and kidney malfunction, they said.
"This technique can give a broad picture of many different molecules in the breath all at once," Jun Ye, who led the research at the University of Colorado, said in a statement.
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A breath analyzer to detect cancer, asthma, diabetes and kidney diseases? Wow. That is indeed innovative!
I wonder how long before it is routinely recommended by our physician to test for diseases that the laser analyzer can detect?
Before too long, I hope!
I am thinking of a friend who was so scared when her mammogram did not come out clean. She had to fight her insurance company so that she could go for follow-up tests. If the laser analyzer had been used, possibly she could have been told that there was no cancer cells detected in her breasts. The suspicious looking lumps were just benign microcalcifications.
It is amazing how much medical technology is advancing. A very positive trend indeed!
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