Non-invasive Diagnosis of Pulmonary Embolism by Use of Biomarkers in Exhaled Breath Condensate

The study will compare the protein profiles of EBC collected from patients admitted to the department of cardiology with suspected pulmonary embolism and controls with same age (within a range of 10 years) and gender from the outpatient clinic awaiting elective cardiovascular surgery. The main-outcome (i.e. means of the relative amounts of specific proteins in the EBC samples) will be compared by unpaired t-tests after assessment of normality and standard deviations within the three groups (PE confirmed, PE suspected but not confirmed and controls). Furthermore, sensitivity and specificity will be calculated for relevant proteins. The results from analysis of EBC samples from the patients and controls will be compared with results from the porcine model in order to confirm and reduce the number of putative biomarkers for PE. Blood samples (i.e. excess plasma from routine blood samples drawn as a part of routine diagnostic work-up) from the study participants will be stored for standardization of the putative markers and verification and supplementing analysis of the EBC markers. In order to qualify the most suitable markers and substrates for standardization, the analysis of the EBC samples must be completed before the blood samples can be analyzed. Only biochemical, no genetic analysis will be conducted.