Identification of Volatile Markers in Sweat for COVID‐19 Screening by Gas Chromatography‐Mass Spectrometry

Abstract Due to an outbreak of coronavirus spreading in recent years, there is an urgent need for effective, rapid, and non‐invasive diagnostics to detect and differentiate among patients who are infected and uninfected with SARS‐CoV‐2 for controlling the virus propagation. This study developed an alternative method for COVID‐19 screening from volatile analysis of metabolites mainly studied in sweat samples obtained from the populations in Bangkok, Thailand, during December 2020 to April 2022. A total of 140 collected samples; 70 positive confirmed COVID‐19 cases and another 70 negatives confirmed COVID‐19 cases were applied to be separated, detected, and identified as volatile organic compounds (VOCs)/odor occurring from SARS‐CoV‐2 infection body by the technique of Headspace solid‐phase microextraction gas chromatography‐mass spectrometry (HS‐SPME‐GC‐MS) together with principle component analysis (PCA), which allowed potential volatile markers of COVID‐19 such as pentadecane, nonanal, styrene, xylene, ethylbenzene, and 2‐ethylhexyl acrylate (up to 94 % accuracy, 93 % sensitivity, 96 % selectivity, and 94 % specificity), respectively, along with limit of detection in a range of 0.26–125 μg. The result was validated by comparison with the RT‐PCR results.