Photoacoustic NO detection for asthma diagnostics

Exhaled nitric oxide was of high interest in breath analyses in the past few years. After its first detection in human breath in 1991, numerous publications uncovered the role of NO and its relation to different diseases. A strong relationship between an asthmatic eosinophilic airway inflammation and an increased NO level is medically confirmed. In this study a new photoacoustic detection system for nitric oxide based on a pulsed quantum cascade laser is introduced. The laser's single mode emission provides adequate selectivity to differentiate NO from other molecules in the sample. The demonstrated detection sensitivity allows in principle an application of the new system as diagnostic tool for asthma.