09-05-2025
This face mask can detect kidney disease with just your breath
While regular surgical face masks can help prevent spread of airborne pathogens, a new modified mask could also protect the wearer by detecting health conditions, including chronic kidney remove waste products made by the body's metabolic processes. But in the case of chronic kidney disease, these organs have become damaged and lose function over time, which can have wide-ranging implications on a person's medical professionals diagnose the condition by measuring metabolites in blood or urine, but low-cost, low-tech systems could make the process easier.
Published in ACS Sensors, the study showed that the smart mask uses a tiny sensor placed between its layers to detect small molecules in a person's breath. These molecules, called metabolites, are linked to chronic kidney disease. In early tests, the mask was able to identify people with the disease with high accuracy.
The smart mask uses a tiny sensor placed between its layers to detect small molecules in a person's breath. (Photo: ACS Sensors)
Kidney patients are known to exhale more ammonia than healthy individuals. But ammonia can also appear in other illnesses. So, researchers led by Corrado Di Natale, an Italy-based electrical engineer, wanted to create a sensor that could detect ammonia along with other chemicals linked specifically to chronic kidney do this, they coated tiny silver electrodes with a polymer commonly used in chemical sensors. This polymer was further enhanced with porphyrins, molecules that react with gases in coated electrodes were then added to the mask and connected to a small electronic someone wearing the mask breathes out, the gases interact with the sensor. This causes changes in electrical resistance, which helps detect chemicals like ammonia, ethanol, propanol and aceton, all linked to chronic kidney disease.
The smart mask can detect metabolites in the breath to reveal information about kidney disease. (Photo: ACS Sensor)
The team tested the sensor on 100 people, half with the kidney disease and half without. The mask correctly identified chronic kidney disease in 84% of the cases and correctly ruled it out in 88% of people who were healthy. It also showed promise in estimating the stage of chronic kidney to the researchers, this kind of breath-based, wearable sensor could make diagnosing and monitoring kidney disease easier, faster and more affordable.
