Exhaled Isoprene for Monitoring Recovery from Acute Hypoxic Stress

Abstract

Hypoxia-like incidents in-flight have increased over the past decade causing severe safety concerns across the aviation community. As aresult, the need to monitor flight crews in real-time for the onset of hypoxic conditions is paramount for continued aeronautical safety. Here, hypoxic events were simulated in the laboratory via a reduced oxygen-breathing device to determine the effect of recovery gas oxygen concentration (21percent and 100 percent) on exhaled breath volatile organic compound composition. Data from samples collected both serially (throughout the exposure), prior to, and following exposures yielded 326 statistically significant features, 203 of which were unique. Of those, 72 features were tentatively identified while 51 were verified with authentic standards. A comparison of samples collected serially between recovery and hypoxia time points shows a statistically significant reduction in exhaled breath isoprene (2-methyl-1,3-butadiene, log2 FC0.399, p=0.005, FDR=0.034, q=0.033), however no significant difference in isoprene abundance was observed when comparing recovery gases (21 percent or 100 percent O2, p=0.152). Furthermore, examination of pre-/post-exposure 1 l bag breath samples illustrate an overall increase in exhaled isoprene abundance post-exposure (log2 FC 0.393, p=0.005, FDR=0.094, q=0.033) but again no significant difference between recovery gas (21 percent and 100 percent, p=0.798) was observed. A statistically significant difference in trend was observed between isoprene abundance and recovery gases O2 concentration when plotted against minimum oxygen saturation (p=0.0419 100 percent O2, p=0.7034 21 percent O2).Collectively, these results suggest exhaled isoprene is dynamic in the laboratory ROBD setup and additional experimentation will be required to fully understand the dynamics of isoprene in response to acute hypoxic stress.

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Nov 30, 2017
Accession Number
AD1094494

Entities

People

  • Anthony V. Qualley
  • Brian A. Geier
  • Claude C. Grigsby
  • Jeffrey B. Phillips
  • Jennifer A. Martin
  • Laura E. Flory
  • Leslie A. Drummond
  • Maomian Fan
  • Rhonda L. Pitsch
  • Sean W. Harshman

Organizations

  • Universal Energy Systems

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Air Force Research Laboratories
  • Biomedical Research
  • Flight Crews
  • Mass Spectrometers
  • Mass Spectrometry
  • Military Research
  • Monitoring
  • Organic Compounds
  • Oxygenation
  • Respiration
  • Saturation
  • Spectrometry
  • Standards
  • Statistical Analysis
  • United States
  • Volatile Organic Compounds

Fields of Study

  • Environmental science

Readers

  • Analytical Chemistry
  • Auditory Neuroscience/Auditory Physiology.
  • Mathematics or Statistics