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

The study will compare the protein profiles of exhaled breath from patients admitted to the Emergency Care Center with suspected pulmonary embolism and controls with same age (within a range of 10 years) and gender. The main-outcome (i.e., means of the relative amounts of specific proteins in the exhaled breath samples) will be compared by unpaired t-tests after assessment of normality and standard deviations within the two groups (PE patients and controls). Furthermore, sensitivity and specificity will be calculated for relevant proteins. The results from analysis of exhaled breath samples from the patients and controls will be compared with results from the porcine model and the first clinical study 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 exhaled breath markers. In order to qualify the most suitable markers and substrates for standardization, the analysis of the exhaled breath samples must be completed before the blood samples can be analyzed. Only biochemical, no genetic analysis will be conducted.