Hydrogen cyanide in the headspace of oral fluid and in mouth-exhaled breath

• Published in: Journal of breath research Vol. 8; no. 2; p. 027108
• Main Authors: Chen, W, Metsälä, M, Vaittinen, O, Halonen, L
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England IOP Publishing 01.06.2014
• Subjects: Adult; Breath Tests - methods; cavity ring-down spectroscopy; Disinfectants; Exhalation; exhaled breath; Female; Humans; hydrogen cyanide; Hydrogen Cyanide - analysis; Male; Middle Aged; Mouth - metabolism; oral fluid; Reproducibility of Results; Saliva - chemistry
• ISSN: 1752-7155; 1752-7163
• DOI: 10.1088/1752-7155/8/2/027108

Mouth-exhaled hydrogen cyanide (HCN) concentrations have previously been reported to originate from the oral cavity. However, a direct correlation between the HCN concentration in oral fluid and in mouth-exhaled breath has not been explicitly shown. In this study, we set up a new methodology to simultaneously measure HCN in the headspace of oral fluid and in mouth-exhaled breath. Our results show that there is a statistically significant correlation between stimulated oral fluid HCN and mouth-exhaled HCN (rs = 0.76, p < 0.001). This confirms that oral fluid is the main contributor to mouth-exhaled HCN. Furthermore, we observe that after the application of an oral disinfectant, both the stimulated oral fluid and mouth-exhaled HCN concentrations decrease. This implies that HCN production in the oral cavity is related to the bacterial and or enzymatic activity.