Comparison between adenosine triphosphate bioluminescence and aerobic colony count to assess surface sanitation in the hospital environment 
Abstract
Background
The measurement of the bioluminescence produced by the firefly luciferase in the presence of adenosine triphosphate has been successfully introduced as a verification of the cleaning procedures according to the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point system in the food industry.
Our aim was to to evaluate the reliability of bioluminescence as a tool to monitor the effectiveness of sanitation in the hospital settings and to predict risk of healthcare associated infections, in comparison with the microbiological gold standard assay.
Methods
614 surfaces were randomly sampled in all hospital units to detect adenosine triphosphate bioluminescence and aerobic colony count. Statystical analysis relied on linear regression model and the calculation of Pearson correlation coefficient.
Results
Aerobic colony count had median values of 1.71 Colony Forming Units/cm2 (interquartile range = 3.8), whereas adenosine triphosphate median was 59.9 Relative Light Units/cm2 (interquartile range = 128.3). Pearson coefficient R2 was 0.09. Sensitivity and specificity of bioluminescence test with respect to microbiology were 46% and 71%, whereas positive predictive value and negative predictive value were 53% and 65%, respectively.
Conclusion
According to our results, there seemed to be no linear correlation between aerobic colony count and adenosine triphosphate values, suggesting that the use of bioluminescence alone as predictor of infection risk is not sufficiently reliable.
Full Text:
PDFDOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2427/12710
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EBPH Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Public Health | ISSN 2282-0930

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.