Breath Test

A breath test is a type of test performed on air generated from the act of exhalation.

Types include:

  • Breathalyzer - By far the most common usage of this term relates to the legal breath test to determine if a person is driving under the influence of alcohol.
  • Hydrogen breath test - it is becoming more and more common for people to undertake a medical test for clinical diagnosis of dietary disabilities such as fructose intolerance, fructose malabsorption, lactose intolerance and lactulose intolerance.
  • The presence of Helicobacter pylori (in peptic ulcer disease) can be tested for with the urea breath test.
  • Exhaled nitric oxide is a breath test that might signal airway inflammation such as in asthma.
  • Breath Tests for Diseases have been developed by companies like Menssana Research, Inc. for early detection of Lung Cancer, Breast Cancer, Pulmonary TB and many others, to serve as an adjunct to existing medical tests. Phase II and Phase III clinical studies are under way to confirm the efficacy of these breath tests.

Famous quotes containing the words breath and/or test:

    “The first breath of adultery is the freest; after it, constraints aping marriage develop.”
    —John Updike (b. 1932)

    “There is a parallel between the twos and the tens. Tens are trying to test their abilities again, sizing up and experimenting to discover how to fit in. They don’t mean everything they do and say. They are just testing. . . . Take a good deal of your daughter’s behavior with a grain of salt. Try to handle the really outrageous as matter-of-factly as you would a mistake in grammar or spelling.”
    —Stella Chess (20th century)