Detection of volatile compounds in urine using an electronic nose instrument

Current clinical diagnostics are based on biochemical, physics and microbiological methods. The electronic nose system used to detect chemical components or VOCs in urine sample is meant to classify different urine components so as to be able to diagnose diseases and other elements accurately. This study used urine sample from 13 patients from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) health centre for the urine analysis. Findings from the study revealed that six patients tested abnormal with mucus while only one patient tested abnormal with bacteria and two healthy. The test conducted from using Cyranose 320 shows that volatile compounds were present in their urine. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to extract first and second principal components from 32 sensors used for the urine analysis. The study suggests the possibility of using e-nose as an early detection system for illness such as diabetes and bacterial infections.