This monograph contains the contributions of invited speakers and participants at the NATO Advanced Study Institute on Disease Markers in Exhaled Breath: Basic Mechanisms and Clinical Applications, held in Greece in 2001. This ASI was designed to summarize and disseminate expert knowledge regarding this rapidly evolving field of lung biology. Breath testing dates from the earliest history of medicine and puzzled brilliant scientific minds including Linus Pauling. The recent developments hold enormous promise that analysis of exhaled breath could open a valuable new window onto human metabolism and illuminate its functions in health and disease. Accordingly, analysis of NO, CO and VOCs in exhaled breath has become a primary focus of respiratory research and an essential aspect of investigations into many systemic diseases both in the laboratory and in the clinics. These activities are reflected in the rapid expansion of presentations at international meetings, scientific and clinical publications, editorials and recommendations by major respiratory societies.
Topics included: acute and chronic lung inflammation with major emphasis on asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, acute lung injury such as occurring during thoracic organ transplantation and related end stage lung disease, mechanisms of acute and chronic rejection, ischaemia-reperfusion injury and systemic inflammation.