Electronic nose sniffs out disease

An "electronic nose", being developed by an Italian-French-Spanish team may be able to sniff out disease, drugs, bombs and a range of other modern ills. "The potential of this odour technology is infinite," said Professor Josep Samitier, the coordinator of the Spot-Nosed project, reports Ansa.

"Our tests have shown that nanobiosensors are able to detect odour molecules with a very high degree of accuracy, with results beyond our expectations in some cases," he says.

The team`s energies are focused on the technology`s potential health applications. "It could be used to diagnose organic imbalances, infections and even cancer. This could lead to new tests for the presence of disease molecules in patients` breath, urine or blood," he says.

Integrative Health Technologies (IHT) announced the signing of a merger agreement with Senticore, a business development company, according to a release. California-based IHT will see become a wholly owned subsidiary of, and transfer its assets and outstanding shares to Florida-based Senticor.

ITH and its subsidiary, Health and Medical Research Centre, have been engaged in the research and development of nutritional and healthcare products and technology for over 20 years.

IHT will become Senticore`s largest portfolio company and, in conjunction with the merger, IHT`s management team will replace Senticore`s management after the required 10-day waiting period.

A new study of a commonly used imaging test of the chest to detect potentially deadly blood clots in the lung shows that extending the scan to the legs, where the clots typically originate, or adding a standard clinical assessment significantly improves physicians` abilities to accurately diagnose pulmonary embolism, reports Infozine.

The Prospective Investigation of Pulmonary Embolism Diagnosis II is the largest study ever conducted to assess the role of contrast-enhanced multi-detector computed tomographic angiography for diagnosing pulmonary embolism.

The multi-centre study was funded by the US National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health.