Engineers at the Miguel Hernandez University of Elche (UMH) have designed an electronic nose, called the “e-Nose”, that can detect respiratory diseases such as covid from urine samples “quickly and cost-effectively” -19 or the flu. saliva.
The electronic nose can identify volatile organic compounds of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen or chlorine in urine to distinguish between healthy and sick people, as well as detect covid-19 or influenza in saliva samples.
UMH researchers have shown that the pattern of volatile compounds in the urine of healthy people does not change over several days, “so the electronic nose can be used to preserve samples for up to 48 hours at 4 degrees Celsius.”
In the case of covid-19, an “electronic nose” can “quickly” differentiate between influenza and coronavirus, two infectious diseases that have very similar symptoms but require different clinical monitoring.
At the National Congress of the Spanish Society of Internal Medicine LIV in Valencia, Antonio Ruiz Canales, professor of agricultural and forestry engineering at UMH, presented the results of the project during a debate titled “New technologies in internal medicine: where are we?”
The electronic nose “e-Nose” was designed with funds from the Valencian Government and the European Regional Development Program (Feder) and developed by medical experts from the General University Hospital of Elche and the University of San Juan in Alicante.