The EBCare smart mask assesses the metabolic status and inflammation of the respiratory airways in asthma and COPD patients.

Research published in Science We demonstrate the utility of a “smart mask” in assessing metabolic status and respiratory airway inflammation in patients with asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) following COVID-19 infection.With the increasing use of personalized wearable devices, such as patches, monitors and sensors, that monitor users' health status and exhaled breath condensate (EBC), researchers introduced and evaluated the use of EBCare, a mask-based device that monitors EBC biomarkers in real time.^1,2

“Monitoring a patient's breath is routinely done, for example to evaluate asthma and other respiratory diseases, but it requires the patient to visit a clinic to have a sample taken and then wait for test results,” lead researcher Wei Gao, PhD, professor of medical engineering at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), said in a news release. [the] COVID-19 [pandemic]More people are wearing masks. This increased mask-wearing can be leveraged for remote, individual monitoring to get real-time feedback on your health at home or in the office. For example, this information can be used to evaluate how effective medical treatments are.”¹

EBCare is just a prototype that can analyze chemicals in a user's breath in real time, whereas other monitoring methods typically detect physical changes such as temperature, humidity, breathing rate, etc. Additionally, EBCare can monitor asthma patients for levels of nitrite, a chemical that indicates inflammation in the airways.¹

According to the authors, to analyze the chemicals and molecules present in breath, the breath must first be cooled and condensed into a liquid. In clinical trials, the cooling step is performed separately from the analysis, and moist breath samples are often kept chilled in ice buckets or bulky refrigerator coolers. According to the authors, EBCare is self-cooling, so the breath cooling and condensation steps are not necessary. Once the breath is converted into a liquid, bio-inspired microfluidic capillaries deliver the liquid to the mask's sensors for analysis. The analysis results are then sent to the user's phone, tablet or computer.¹

“This mask represents a new paradigm for respiratory and metabolic disease management and precision medicine because it allows for easy collection of breath samples and real-time analysis of exhaled chemical molecules through a routinely worn mask. Breath condensate contains dissolved gases and non-volatile substances in the form of aerosols and droplets, including metabolic substances, inflammatory indicators, and pathogens,” explained Wen-zheng Heng, a graduate student at Caltech and lead study author, in a news release. “We learned how water is transported from plants, which use capillary forces to draw water up from the ground.”¹

To test the mask, a series of studies evaluating humans were conducted, enrolling mostly patients with asthma or COPD. Researchers looked specifically at monitoring patients' exhaled breath for nitrates, an inflammatory biomarker for both asthma and COPD. Results showed that the EBCare mask was able to accurately detect the biomarker and indicate whether there was inflammation in the patient's airways. Additionally, another study demonstrated that the mask could also accurately detect blood alcohol levels in humans, and therefore could be used as a tool for field DUI checks and other alcohol consumption monitoring.^1,2

In addition, researchers have also studied how the mask can be used to assess blood urea levels in the management and monitoring of kidney disease. Another study showed that the smart mask can accurately detect ammonium levels appearing in exhaled breath condensate, which can closely reflect blood urea levels.¹

The researchers note that these studies are a “proof of concept” and that the technology could be expanded to incorporate other markers relevant to asthma and COPD. Furthermore, they hope that EBCare could serve as the basis for creating smart masks that could serve as a multi-purpose platform for general health monitoring.^1,2

“Our smart mask platform for EBC collection and analysis represents a major advance in the potential for real-time monitoring of lung health,” co-author Harry Rossiter, a researcher at Harbor-UCLA's Lundquist Institute for Biomedical Innovation and professor of medicine at UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine, said in a news release. “This notion that biosensors for a wide range of compounds could be added in the future highlights the groundbreaking potential of smart masks for health monitoring and diagnostics.”¹

References

1. California Institute of Technology. Smart Mask Monitors Breathing to Detect Health Signs. News Release. August 29, 2024. Accessed August 30, 2024. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1055758

2. Heng, W, Yin, S, Min, J, et al. Smart mask for exhaled breath condensate collection and analysis. Science. 385,954-961(2024) doi:10.1126/science.adn6471