Urinary Volatile Organic Compound Testing in Fast-Track Patients with Suspected Colorectal Cancer (2022)
Journal Article
Boulind, C. E., Gould, O., Costello, B. D. L., Allison, J., White, P., Ewings, P., …Francis, N. K. (2022). Urinary Volatile Organic Compound Testing in Fast-Track Patients with Suspected Colorectal Cancer. Cancers, 14(9), 2127. https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers14092127

Colorectal symptoms are common but only infrequently represent serious pathology, including colorectal cancer (CRC). A large number of invasive tests are presently performed for reassurance. We investigated the feasibility of urinary volatile organic... Read More about Urinary Volatile Organic Compound Testing in Fast-Track Patients with Suspected Colorectal Cancer.

A literature survey of all volatiles from healthy human breath and bodily fluids: The human volatilome (2021)
Journal Article
Drabińska, N., Flynn, C., Ratcliffe, N., Belluomo, I., Myridakis, A., Gould, O., …Costello, B. D. L. (2021). A literature survey of all volatiles from healthy human breath and bodily fluids: The human volatilome. Journal of Breath Research, 15(3), 034001. https://doi.org/10.1088/1752-7163/abf1d0

This paper comprises an updated version of the 2014 review which reported 1846 volatile organic compounds (VOCs) identified from healthy humans. In total over 900 additional VOCs have been reported since the 2014 review and the VOCs from semen have b... Read More about A literature survey of all volatiles from healthy human breath and bodily fluids: The human volatilome.

Breath analysis for detection of viral infection, the current position of the field (2020)
Journal Article
Gould, O., Ratcliffe, N., Król, E., & de Lacy Costello, B. (2020). Breath analysis for detection of viral infection, the current position of the field. Journal of Breath Research, 14(4), https://doi.org/10.1088/1752-7163/ab9c32

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of rapid, cost effective, accurate, and non-invasive testing for viral infections. Volatile compounds (VCs) have been suggested for several decades as fulfilling these criteria. However currently v... Read More about Breath analysis for detection of viral infection, the current position of the field.

Sensors for determining volatile compounds based on electrical conductivity and cataluminescence measurements of metal oxide films (2019)
Patent
Cox, T., Kiely, J., Ratcliffe, N., deLacy Costello, B., & Luxton, R. (2019). Sensors for determining volatile compounds based on electrical conductivity and cataluminescence measurements of metal oxide films

The invention relates to the field of sensors for detecting volatile compounds. The sensor of the present invention for detecting volatile compounds comprises: a film of metal oxide; a heater configured to provide heat energy to the film of metal oxi... Read More about Sensors for determining volatile compounds based on electrical conductivity and cataluminescence measurements of metal oxide films.

From fast identification to resistance testing: Volatile compound profiling as a novel diagnostic tool for detection of antibiotic susceptibility (2019)
Journal Article
Smart, A., de Lacy Costello, B., Ratcliffe, N., Drabinksa, N., & Hewett, K. (2019). From fast identification to resistance testing: Volatile compound profiling as a novel diagnostic tool for detection of antibiotic susceptibility. Trends in Analytical Chemistry, 115, 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trac.2019.03.019

Widespread use of antibiotics has led to the development of antibiotic resistance in many pathogenic bacteria. If effective methods of alleviating this crisis are not applied, a return to high mortality and morbidity of the pre-antibiotic era could o... Read More about From fast identification to resistance testing: Volatile compound profiling as a novel diagnostic tool for detection of antibiotic susceptibility.

Sniffing out resistance – Rapid identification of urinary tract infection-causing bacteria and their antibiotic susceptibility using volatile metabolite profiles (2019)
Journal Article
Smart, A., de Lacy Costello, B., White, P., Avison, M., Batty, C., Turner, C., …Ratcliffe, N. (2019). Sniffing out resistance – Rapid identification of urinary tract infection-causing bacteria and their antibiotic susceptibility using volatile metabolite profiles. Journal of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Analysis, 167, 59-65. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpba.2019.01.044

© 2019 Elsevier B.V. Antibiotic resistance is set to be an unprecedented threat to modern medicine. ‘Sniffing’ bacteria potentially offers a rapid way to determine susceptibility. A successful proof-of-principle study is described, using thermal deso... Read More about Sniffing out resistance – Rapid identification of urinary tract infection-causing bacteria and their antibiotic susceptibility using volatile metabolite profiles.

Gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS) quantification of metabolites in stool using13 C labelled compounds (2018)
Journal Article
Gould, O., Costello, B. D. L., Smart, A., Jones, P., Macmaster, A., Ransley, K., & Ratcliffe, N. (2018). Gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS) quantification of metabolites in stool using13 C labelled compounds. Metabolites, 8(4), 75. https://doi.org/10.3390/metabo8040075

© 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. It has become increasingly important to qualitatively and quantitatively assess the volatile metabolites in a range of bodily fluids for use in monitoring health. There has been relatively lit... Read More about Gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS) quantification of metabolites in stool using13 C labelled compounds.

Irritable bowel syndrome and active inflammatory bowel disease diagnosed by faecal gas analysis (2016)
Journal Article
Aggio, R. B., White, P., Jayasena, H., de Lacy Costello, B., Ratcliffe, N. M., & Probert, C. S. (2017). Irritable bowel syndrome and active inflammatory bowel disease diagnosed by faecal gas analysis. Alimentary Pharmacology and Therapeutics, 45(1), 82-90. https://doi.org/10.1111/apt.13822

© 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd Background: Inflammatory bowel disease and irritable bowel syndrome may present in a similar manner. Measuring faecal calprotectin concentration is often recommended to rule out inflammatory bowel disease, however, ther... Read More about Irritable bowel syndrome and active inflammatory bowel disease diagnosed by faecal gas analysis.

Cyclic ortho ester fuel additive (2014)
Patent
Lam, J., Ratcliffe, N. M., de Lacy Costello, B., Repetto, S., Costello, J. F., & Parmenter, D. (2014). Cyclic ortho ester fuel additive. WO/2014/174290

A review of the volatiles from the healthy human body (2014)
Journal Article
Ratcliffe, N. M., Al-Kateb, H., De Lacy Costello, B., de Lacy Costello, B., Amann, A., Al-Kateb, H., …Ratcliffe, N. M. (2014). A review of the volatiles from the healthy human body. Journal of Breath Research, 8(1), https://doi.org/10.1088/1752-7155/8/1/014001

A compendium of all the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emanating from the human body (the volatolome) is for the first time reported. 1840 VOCs have been assigned from breath (872), saliva (359), blood (154), milk (256), skin secretions (532) urin... Read More about A review of the volatiles from the healthy human body.

Breath volatile analysis from patients diagnosed with harmful drinking, cirrhosis and hepatic encephalopathy: A pilot study (2013)
Journal Article
Ratcliffe, N. M., Costello, B. D. L., Khalid, T. Y., de Lacy Costello, B., Ewen, R., White, P., …Probert, C. S. (2013). Breath volatile analysis from patients diagnosed with harmful drinking, cirrhosis and hepatic encephalopathy: A pilot study. Metabolomics, 9(5), 938-948. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11306-013-0510-4

Hepatic encephalopathy (HE) is a neuropsychiatric state potentially complicating cirrhosis following the accumulation of toxic compounds that cross the blood-brain barrier and affect brain function; the compounds may undergo alveolar gas exchange and... Read More about Breath volatile analysis from patients diagnosed with harmful drinking, cirrhosis and hepatic encephalopathy: A pilot study.

The Development of Novel Fuel Dehydrating Icing Inhibitors (2013)
Journal Article
Lam, J. K., de Lacy Costello, B., Repetto, S. L., Repetto, S., Costello, J. F., de Lacy Costello, B., …Lam, J. (2013). The Development of Novel Fuel Dehydrating Icing Inhibitors. SAE International Journal of Fuels and Lubricants, 6(3), 553-563. https://doi.org/10.4271/2013-01-2169

Dissolved water is a normal component of jet fuel which is vapourised during combustion; however, free water is a contaminant that can starve engines, freeze to form ice crystals capable of blocking fuel feeds, support microbial growth, and contribut... Read More about The Development of Novel Fuel Dehydrating Icing Inhibitors.

An investigation of volatile organic compounds from the saliva of healthy individuals using headspace-trap/GC-MS (2013)
Journal Article
Ratcliffe, N., De Lacy Costello, B., Al-Kateb, H., de Lacy Costello, B., & Ratcliffe, N. M. (2013). An investigation of volatile organic compounds from the saliva of healthy individuals using headspace-trap/GC-MS. Journal of Breath Research, 7(3), https://doi.org/10.1088/1752-7155/7/3/036004

Analysis of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from saliva, to aid disease diagnoses, has received little attention. This work aims to address the paucity of information on saliva volatiles and includes a database of newly identified compounds whilst... Read More about An investigation of volatile organic compounds from the saliva of healthy individuals using headspace-trap/GC-MS.

A Pilot Study Combining a GC-Sensor Device with a Statistical Model for the Identification of Bladder Cancer from Urine Headspace (2013)
Journal Article
Ratcliffe, N., Probert, C. S., Ewen, R., Khalid, T., White, P., De Lacy Costello, B., …Ratcliffe, N. M. (2013). A Pilot Study Combining a GC-Sensor Device with a Statistical Model for the Identification of Bladder Cancer from Urine Headspace. PLoS ONE, 8(7), https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0069602

There is a need to reduce the number of cystoscopies on patients with haematuria. Presently there are no reliable biomarkers to screen for bladder cancer. In this paper, we evaluate a new simple in-house fabricated, GC-sensor device in the diagnosis... Read More about A Pilot Study Combining a GC-Sensor Device with a Statistical Model for the Identification of Bladder Cancer from Urine Headspace.

The use of MS for the investigation of irritable bowel syndrome and inflammatory bowel disease (2013)
Journal Article
Ratcliffe, N. M., de Lacy Costello, B., & Shepherd, S. (2013). The use of MS for the investigation of irritable bowel syndrome and inflammatory bowel disease. Clinical laboratory international, 37, 18-20

Currently, the diagnosis of bowel diseases such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) relies on invasive and expensive procedures. Identification of biomarker-based tests to aid diagnosis is an important area of resea... Read More about The use of MS for the investigation of irritable bowel syndrome and inflammatory bowel disease.

The importance of methane breath testing: A review (2013)
Journal Article
Ratcliffe, N. M., De Lacy Costello, B. P., de Lacy Costello, B., Ledochowski, M., & Ratcliffe, N. M. (2013). The importance of methane breath testing: A review. Journal of Breath Research, 7(2), https://doi.org/10.1088/1752-7155/7/2/024001

Sugar malabsorption in the bowel can lead to bloating, cramps, diarrhea and other symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome as well as affecting absorption of other nutrients. The hydrogen breath test is now a well established noninvasive test for assessi... Read More about The importance of methane breath testing: A review.

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) found in urine and stool (2013)
Book Chapter
de Lacy Costello, B., & Ratcliffe, N. M. (2013). Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) found in urine and stool. In A. Amann, & D. Smith (Eds.), Volatile Biomarkers: Non-Invasive Diagnosis in Physiology and Medicine (405-462). Elsevier

An Investigation of Fecal Volatile Organic Metabolites in Irritable Bowel Syndrome (2013)
Journal Article
Probert, C. S., de Costello, B. L., Ahmed, I., Greenwood, R., de Lacy Costello, B., Ratcliffe, N. M., & Probert, C. (2013). An Investigation of Fecal Volatile Organic Metabolites in Irritable Bowel Syndrome. PLoS ONE, 8(3), https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0058204

Diagnosing irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) can be a challenge; many clinicians resort to invasive investigations in order to rule out other diseases and reassure their patients. Volatile organic metabolites (VOMs) are emitted from feces; understanding... Read More about An Investigation of Fecal Volatile Organic Metabolites in Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

Volatiles from oral anaerobes confounding breath biomarker discovery (2013)
Journal Article
De Lacy Costello, B., Khalid, T. Y., Ratcliffe, N. M., Khalid, T., Saad, S., Greenman, J., …Ratcliffe, N. M. (2013). Volatiles from oral anaerobes confounding breath biomarker discovery. Journal of Breath Research, 7(1), https://doi.org/10.1088/1752-7155/7/1/017114

The levels of compounds in exhaled mouth air do not necessarily reflect levels in the systemic circulation as bacteria can bio-transform substrates to produce compounds within the mouth. This should be of concern to researchers measuring breath volat... Read More about Volatiles from oral anaerobes confounding breath biomarker discovery.

Fecal microbiome and volatile organic compound metabolome in obese humans with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (2013)
Journal Article
Probert, C. S., Raman, M., Ahmed, I., Gillevet, P. M., Probert, C., Ratcliffe, N. M., …Rioux, K. P. (2013). Fecal microbiome and volatile organic compound metabolome in obese humans with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, 11(7), 868-875.e3. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cgh.2013.02.015

BACKGROUND & AIMS: The histopathology of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is similar to that of alcoholic liver disease. Colonic bacteria are a source of many metabolic products, including ethanol and other volatile organic compounds (VOC) th... Read More about Fecal microbiome and volatile organic compound metabolome in obese humans with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.