Towards and electronic nose application in medicine: the skin odor analysis,

Electronic noses have been applied to several disciplines such as food analysis, environmental control and industrial processes, in this paper the use of electronic noses in medicine is outlined. In the paper a review about the main features of human body odor isgiven. First experiments concerning with the measure of the sensitivity of sensors towards a particular constituent of the skin odor and the preliminary results of a survey of skin odor in a population of individuals are reported. results encourages in pursuing this application which may arose both in an increased comprehension of the role of smell and odor in humans and in the next future in a novel diagnosis tools.