In this paper

a gas chromatography-ion mobility spectrometry(GC-IMS) was developed for the detection of volatile organic compounds(VOCs) in 81 subjects

including 20 patients with pulmonary cryptococcosis

28 patients with pulmonary aspergillosis as patient controls and 33 healthy controls.Analysis of a single sample took only 10 minutes.A total of 19 VOCs were detected.By principal component analysis(PCA)

it was found that there was a clear distinction between the exhaled VOCs of patients with pulmonary cryptococcal disease and those of healthy controls

while the difference between the exhaled VOCs of pulmonary cryptococcal patients and that of pulmonary aspergillosis patients was not so significant.Furthermore

the potential characteristic VOCs for patients with pulmonary cryptococcal disease screened by OPLS-DA(orthogona partial least squares-discrimination analysis) model included 2-methyl-1-propanal

isopropyl benzene

2-pentanone

4-methyl-2-pentanone

butanal and hexanal

while those for pulmonary aspergillosis patients were 2-butanone

2-pentanone

isopropyl benzene

2-methyl-1-propanal

4-methyl-2-pentanone and 3-pentanone.Therefore

it could be found that the characteristic VOCs of patients with pulmonary cryptococcal and pulmonary aspergillosis diseases both included 2-methyl-1-propanal

isopropyl benzene

2-pentanone and 4-methyl-2-pentanone.It can be concluded that butanal and hexanal were more specific in pulmonary cryptococcal patients

while 2-butanone and 3-pentanone were more specific in pulmonary aspergillosis patients.In summary

the GC-IMS method was rapid in the analysis of exhaled VOCs of pulmonary cryptococcal patients

and it could be used in the analysis for hundreds or even thousands of samples

providing the necessary basic data for objective evaluation on the feasibility of pulmonary cryptococcal diagnosis.