Blood 2,5-dimethyfuran as a sensitive and specific biomarker for cigarette smoking

Abstract

Objective: We evaluated the validity of blood 2,5-dimethylfuran (DMF) for determining smoking status using population-based data.

Methods: We obtained blood DMF concentrations and smoking status from National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2003–2006 and computed sensitivity, specificity and Kappa statistic.

Results: Self-reported smoking showed very high agreement (Kappa = 92.8–93.3%) in daily smokers and fair agreement in non-daily smokers (Kappa = 33.7–36.4%). Coffee intake did not influence the detection of blood DMF.

Conclusions: Blood DMF has comparable sensitivity and specificity with serum cotinine for identifying current daily smokers, which may make it a useful biomarker in epidemiologic studies.

• 2
• 5-dimethylfuran
• cotinine
• environmental tobacco smoke
• NHANES
• volatile organic compound