Headspace Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) Profiling of Infected and Non-Infected Wound Swabs—A Pilot Study

Infections of chronic wounds are a major healthcare burden worldwide and can lead to poor health outcomes such as amputations of limbs and death. Detecting infections early significantly increases the effectiveness of therapeutic interventions. Screening of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted from wound swab samples can potentially serve as a highly specific indicator of infection. Profiling of VOCs from infected and non-infected wounds was carried out. Swab samples were collected from 26 wounds from 23 patients (n = 20 diabetic patients; n = 3 non-diabetic patients). There were 16 wounds sampled that were clinically determined as infected, and 10 as non-infected. Headspace-solid phase microextraction gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (HS-GC-MS) was used to rapidly sample and detect VOCs from the swabs following a short incubation period. A total of 42 compounds were identified and included for analysis. Infected wounds emitted more diverse VOCs compared to non-infected wounds. Higher numbers of compounds with significantly higher abundances were detected from severely infected wounds compared to less severely infected wounds. Abundances of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) and branched-chain fatty acids (BCFAs) were found to be the strongest discriminators of infected from non-infected wounds. Further validation is needed, but the results of this pilot study highlight the potential of detecting these compounds as a highly specific and targeted route to predicting or detecting wound infections in the future.