An artificial nose to smell illness

Scottish scientists are in the process of inventing an artificial nose which can tell whether someone is ill from the smell of their breath.

Scottish scientists are in the process of inventing an artificial nose which can tell whether someone is ill from the smell of their breath.

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The smell of a patient was used in medical diagnosis a century ago, but is now being rediscovered as a useful tool for doctors.

The "Spectral Nose", which is being built at Strathclyde University, would use advanced chemistry to detect different odours, and then a computer screen would give the patient an all-clear or indicate which disease they could have.

A desktop device for hospitals, laboratories, doctors' surgeries and the workplace is being developed, along with a hand-held version which could be used in the home or in the field.

Professor Andrew Mills, of Strathclyde's chemistry department, said they were still in the developmental stage and while a working device was some way off, progress had been goodto date.

"The idea of detecting odours and using that as a means of medical diagnosis is not new. But although it is 100 years old, it is being rediscovered," he said.

"Where diseases are associated with characteristic odours, this could be used for rapid screening and mass screening.

Some of the odours associated with various diseases are:

Rotten apples, pear drops or acetone (used in varnish remover) -
forms of diabetes.

Sweaty sheep - smallpox.

Plucked feathers - measles.

A butcher's shop - yellow fever.

Fish - uremia, which stems from kidney failure and can cause coma.

Musty fish/raw liver - liver failure.

Foul smell - a lung abscess or intestinal obstruction.

Freshly baked brown bread - typhoid.

Stale beer - tuberculosis