Modular Breath Sampler in the Microbiological Diagnostics of Patients with Cystic Fibrosis

In this cross-sectional proof-of-concept study we investigated the yield of a newly developed two-way non-rebreathing device (Modular Breath Sampler, nowadays renamed Aerocep) to collect exhaled breath for PCR-based microbiological diagnostics in pediatric patients with Cystic Fibrosis. We investigated 93 samples of 44 pediatric CF patients and 32 samples of pediatric asthma patients serving as controls. All data, including results of microbiological investigations and PCR-based diagnostics, were prospectively collected in a secure online Castor database and exported to the SPSS file in this repository.