Study of Breath Acetone in a Rat Mode of 126 Rats with Type 1 Diabetes

We investigate correlations of breath acetone with blood glucose (BG) and blood beta-hydroxybutyrate (BHB) in a rat model of 126 streptozotocin-induced Type 1 diabetic (T1D) and 32 healthy rats, and evaluate the role of breath acetone analysis as a non-invasive alternative in diabetes screening and management. We conducted breath acetone analysis using a T1D rat model under various conditions, including fasting and insulin-treated. Breath acetone concentrations were measured using a cavity ringdown breath acetone analyzer, LaserBreath-001. The results showed that the breath acetone, BG, and BHB in the T1D rat group were significantly different from those in the healthy group (P<0.05). Significant positive relationships between breath acetone and blood BHB existed in both T1D and healthy groups, as well as in a group of T1D rats under fasting condition and insulin treatment. When the BG concentrations were grouped as follows: 16.5-24.4, 24.5-27.7, and 27.8-41.7 mmol/L, a moderate negative correlation between breath acetone and BG was observed in the T1D group. Furthermore, the accuracy of diabetes screening using breath acetone was analyzed using the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis method and results showed that the accuracy is low when the area under ROC curve (AUC) is <0.6425.