Differentiation Between Cerebrospinal Fluid and Serum with Electronic Nose

The study investigates the ability of the electronic nose to differentiate between cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and serum and to identify an unknown specimen as CSF or serum. CSF and serum specimens were heated and tested with an organic semiconductor-based Cyranose 320 electronic nose (Cyrons Sciences, Pasadena, CA). Data from the 32-element sensor array were subjected to principal component analysis to depict differences in odorant patterns. The electronic nose was able to distinguish between CSF and serum isolates with Mahalanobis distance >5. Furthermore, the electronic nose was able to place unknown specimens in the appropriate class of CSF or serum. The electronic nose is a novel method that may allow rapid, low cost, and reliable distinction between CSF and serum in a clinical setting. Because the results are available almost immediately, the electronic nose is a powerful tool that in the future may allow for rapid diagnosis of CSF leaks in the office setting.