Analytical Sciences

Identification of Ammonia in Gas Emanated from Human Skin and Its Correlation with That in Blood

Kazutoshi NOSE,* Tatsuo MIZUNO,* Norio YAMANE,** Takaharu KONDO,** Hajime OHTANI,* Shuki ARAKI,* and Takao TSUDA***

*Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Nagoya Institute of Technology, Gokiso, Showa, Nagoya 466-8555, Japan
**Research Center of Health, Physical Fitness and Sports, Nagoya University, Furo-cho, Chikusa, Nagoya 464-8601, Japan
***Pico-Device Co., Incubation Center Office 5, Nagoya Institute of Technology, Gokiso, Showa, Nagoya 466-8555, Japan

Identifying and measuring the ammonia gas that emanates from human skin, which we called skin gas, has been achieved using a modified gas chromatographic system with a nitrogen-selective detector (flame-thermoionic detector: FTD). The skin gas is collected with a home-made sampling probe or bag, which is used to cover the skin surface of a subject's wrist, or a finger, for 5 min. It was proved that ammonia was present in skin gas for healthy persons and patients with hepatic disease. The average amounts of ammonia were 1.7 ± 0.4 and 2.7 ± 0.8 ng/cm²; furthermore, there was a significant difference between them (p < 0.05). In addition, the ammonia levels present in skin gas were correlated with that in blood (r = 0.64, p < 0.05).

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