17 Aug How Your Breath Could Help Doctors Diagnose Illness
Sophia Koo, MD, specialist in Infectious Diseases at BWH, has been developing a method by which doctors can use a patient’s breath to determine which disease they have. By using a device similar to a breathalyzer and having patients breathe into it for four minutes, Koo is able to isolate exhaled bacteria and particles and analyze their contents. This method is particularly useful with patients who are suffering from pneumonia, which is notoriously difficult to diagnose and treat if it is diagnosed too late in the development of the infection. Koo will continue to augment her work on early detection of different types of pneumonia thanks to a grant she recently received from BWH.