RT Journal Article
T1 Exhaled Volatile Organic Compounds Identify Allergic Patients Among Individuals With Chronic Rhinitis
A1 Sola-Martinez, Rosa Alba
A1 Zubiaga-Fernandez, Laura
A1 Figuerola, Marta
A1 Cruz-Amaya, Anyith
A1 Aranda, Carlos J.
A1 Torres, Maria J.
A1 Eguiluz-Gracia, Ibon
A1 Rondon, Carmen
A1 De Diego Puente, Teresa
A1 Testera-Montes, Almudena
K1 Fiebre del heno
K1 Alergia
AB Background: The nasal allergen challenge (NAC) is the gold standard to diagnose allergic rhinitis (AR) and local allergic rhi-nitis (LAR), but its clinical use remains limited. We investigated whether volatile organic compounds (VOC) in exhaled breathcould identify allergic individuals among patients with chronic rhinitis.Methods: Exhaled breath samples were collected before and 24 h after NAC in participants with AR, LAR, non-allergic rhinitis(NAR), and healthy control (HC). Samples were analyzed using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry, focusing on saturatedhydrocarbons. Associations with fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO) and blood eosinophils were also assessed.Results: We included 28 AR, 31 LAR, 29 NAR, and 14 HC individuals, divided into training and validation sets. A predictivemodel based on two VOCs (decane and nonadecane) discriminated allergic (AR + LAR) from non-allergic (NAR + HC) subjects(AUC 0.721, 95% CI: 0.506–0.936; permutation test p = 0.009), with moderate performance in the validation set (AUC 0.760, 95%CI: 0.585–0.935; 76.5% sensitivity, 69.2% specificity). Similarly, these two VOCs moderately differentiated LAR and NAR patients(AUC 0.737, 95% CI: 0.545–0.929; permutation test p = 0.011). At baseline, decane levels were higher in LAR than HC subjects(p = 0.007), nonadecane levels were higher in LAR than NAR individuals (p = 0.026), and decane, styrene, and nonanal levelswere higher in patients with FeNO ≥ 25 ppb (all p ≤ 0.016). No associations were observed between VOCs and blood eosinophils.NAC induced a significant reduction in nonadecane in allergic patients (p = 0.012), but not in non-allergic subjects.Conclusion: Exhaled decane and nonadecane might serve as non-invasive biomarkers of allergic inflammation in rhinitis pa-tients, potentially supporting NAC indication. Elevated exhaled nonanal, decane, and styrene may reflect T2 airway inflamma-tion. These exploratory findings require validation in larger, multicenter cohorts with accuracy-improving potential.
PB Wiley
YR 2026
FD 2026-02-27
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10630/45897
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10630/45897
LA eng
NO R. A. Sola-Martinez, L. Zubiaga-Fernandez, M. Figuerola, et al., “ Exhaled Volatile Organic Compounds Identify Allergic Patients Among Individuals With Chronic Rhinitis,” Allergy (2026): 1–12, https://doi.org/10.1111/all.70273.
NO Funding for open access charge: Universidad de Málaga/CBUA
NO Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII) of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness
NO Regional Ministry of Health of Andalusia
NO Universidad de Murcia
NO Spanish Ministry of Universities
NO Horizon Europe
DS RIUMA. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Málaga
RD 19 mar 2026