A modified surgical face mask containing a specialized breath sensor can accurately detect when someone has kidney disease, according to new research published May 7 in the journal ACS Sensors.

The mask analyzes a person’s breath to look for gases that are associated with kidney disease, researchers said.

“The implementation of this technology is expected to enhance the management of chronic kidney disease patients by facilitating the timely identification of changes in disease progression,” investigator Dr. Annalisa Noce, a researcher in hypertension and nephrology at the University of Rome Tor Vergata in Italy, said in a news release

As many as 35 million Americans have chronic kidney disease, and even more likely have it but are not aware of it, researchers said in background notes.

Kidneys remove waste products created by the body’s natural functions, but kidney disease reduces the organs’ ability to filter out such waste.

As a result, people with chronic kidney disease exhale elevated levels of ammonia, researchers noted.

For this study, researchers created a breath sensor that would detect ammonia and other gases associated with kidney disease, using silver electrodes coated with specially selected polymers.

Researchers tested the face masks on 100 people, of whom about half were diagnosed with chronic kidney disease.

The mask correctly identified kidney disease 84% of the time, and accurately ruled out kidney disease 88% of the time, results show.

The findings also indicate that the sensor’s data can be used to estimate the stage of a person’s kidney disease, which could help in diagnosis and treatment, researchers said.