According to a recent study, researchers from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, found out that traces of Covid infection or Coronavirus can be detected in microscopically small fluid droplets exhaled during a short time gap. Using the help of a research instrument developed by the study publishing research team, the measurement can be done with a smaller handheld instrument called the Breath Explor (BE). Read the article further to know more about the study.
The lead author of the research, Emilia Viklund, a doctoral student at the varsity was quoted by news agency IANS saying, "The particles we can detect are very small-less than five micrometers in diameter-and we have here managed to capture particles with RNA virus in just a few breaths." The study was published in the journal Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses. And, three different methods were utilized to gather the samples, mainly: 20 typical breaths, a strategy where study subjects pause their breathing for a moment after a very deep exhalation; and a technique where the study subject coughs several times into the instrument.
The results of the experiment showed that coughing created the best breath tests gathered with PExA (8 of 25), and then by profound breathing (3 of 25) and normal breathing (2 of 25). Professor Anna-Carin Olin, the inventor of PExA, said, "The quantity of aerosol particles we needed for the test was about one 10-millionth of the amount from nasal swab samples needed to detect viral RNA in regular respiration with PCR analysis."
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"Fluid droplets that one exhales after deep breathing form largely in the small airways, where it is known that the virus can cause great damage. As a result, it would be exciting to further study the findings in the exhaled air in relation to disease progression," she further added. The conclusion raised the possibility of substituting unpleasant nasal swab tests with easy and simple breath tests. Viklund said, "Methods for studying aerosol particles can be a good way of complementing established methods of measuring and monitoring Covid-19. In general, we can say that analysis of exhaled air has great potential for studying the spread of infection and where the virus is in the respiratory tract."