1,720,963 research outputs found
Persistent residual contamination in endoscope channels; a fluorescence epi-microscopy study
No full textBackground and study aims: The increasing demand for endoscopic procedures poses new contamination challenges, given developing antimicrobial resistance worldwide and potential viral or prion diseases in populations at risk. We examined working channels from reusable luminal endoscopes used in recent years.Methods: Very sensitive fluorescence epimicroscopy was used to examine working channels from 6 decommissioned and 6 factory-new channels, as received, or following spiking and washing in the laboratory.Results: After a single contamination and wash test cycle, new channels retained approximately 75?pg/mm2 of proteins; through 7 subsequent cycles residual proteins fluctuated between 25 and 75?pg/mm2. Decommissioned channels harbored 1?–?4?µg of proteins each, except in one gastroscope (33?µg), including up to 2?% amyloid proteins except in one gastroscope and one sigmoidoscope (with over 80?%); lumens showed wearing with established abraded biofilms in 3 cases. After spiking with scrapie-infected blood components and washing, residual protein levels in new channels varied following standard (17.23?pg/mm2), duplicated (2.39?pg/mm2) or extended (11.3?pg/mm2) washing; no changes were measured among the long-established contamination in old channels.Conclusions: Our observations suggest that wear effects in endoscope lumens may contribute to the adsorption of proteins, thus facilitating retention and survival of bacteria. As demonstrated by recent outbreaks worldwide despite recommended reprocessing, the development of antimicrobial-resistant bacterial strains, and the estimated prevalence of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) in the UK particularly, combined with increasing demand for endoscopic procedures, call for sustained precautions and improved methods for the reprocessing of nonautoclavable, reusable surgical instruments
Residual protein contamination and prion infectivity after decontamination of spiked surgical surfaces using a cold atmospheric plasma jet
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A cold water, ultrasonically activated stream efficiently removes proteins and prion-associated amyloid from surgical stainless steel: ultrasonic water stream for surgical decontamination
No full textBackground: Sterile service department decontamination procedures for surgical instruments struggle to demonstrate efficient removal of the hardiest infectious contaminants, such as prion proteins. A recently designed novel system, which uses a low pressure ultrasonically activated, cold water stream, has previously demonstrated efficient hard surface cleaning of several biological contaminants. Aim: To test the efficacy of an ultrasonically activated stream for the removal of tissue proteins, including prion-associated amyloid, from surgical stainless steel surfaces. Methods: Test surfaces were contaminated with 22L, ME7 or 263K prion-infected brain homogenates. The surfaces were treated with the ultrasonically activated water stream for contact times of 5 and 10 s. Residual proteinaceous and amyloid contamination were quantified using sensitive microscopic analysis, and immunoblotting was used to characterize the eluted prion residues before and after treatment with the ultrasonically activated stream. Findings: Efficient removal of the different prion strains from the surgical stainless steel surfaces was observed, and reduced levels of protease-susceptible and -resistant prion protein was detected in recovered supernatant. Conclusion: This study demonstrated that an ultrasonically activated stream has the potential to be a cost-effective solution to improve current decontamination practices and has the potential to reduce hospital-acquired infections.</p
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Cold water cleaning of brain proteins, biofilm and bone - harnessing an ultrasonically activated stream
No full textIn the absence of sufficient cleaning of medical instruments, contamination and infection can result in serious consequences for the health sector and remains a significant unmet challenge. In this paper we describe a novel cleaning system reliant on cavitation action created in a free flowing fluid stream where ultrasonic transmission to a surface, through the stream, is achieved using careful design and control of the device architecture, sound field and the materials employed. Cleaning was achieved with purified water at room temperature, moderate fluid flow rates and without the need for chemical additives or the high power consumption associated with conventional strategies. This study illustrates the potential in harnessing an ultrasonically activated stream to remove biological contamination including brain tissue from surgical stainless steel substrates, S. epidermidis biofilms from glass, and fat/soft tissue matter from bone structures with considerable basic and clinical applications.</span
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