Kirk Y L, Kendall K, Ashworth H A, Hunter P R
Public Health Laboratory, Chester, UK.
J Hosp Infect. 1992 Mar;20(3):193-8. doi: 10.1016/0195-6701(92)90087-3.
Nosocomial transmission of respiratory pathogens is a possible complication of lung function testing. The use of a filter, placed between the patient and the spirometer equipment may be one way of preventing such nosocomial spread. This paper reports the laboratory evaluation of the efficiency of such a filter at removing bacteria from exhaled breath. Volunteers exhaled 100 normal breaths or four forced exhalations through a filter on to a blood agar plate. Bacterial counts on the agar plate were compared with recoverable bacterial counts from the filter. Total challenge from the forced exhalations ranged from 161-84,200 colony forming units. The calculated efficiency of 10 volunteers was 99.9%. For the normal breaths the challenge ranged from 0-262,000 colony forming units. There was no growth on any of the blood-agar plates. These filters appear to be highly efficient at removing exhaled bacteria.
呼吸道病原体的医院内传播是肺功能测试可能出现的并发症。在患者与肺活量计设备之间放置过滤器可能是预防此类医院内传播的一种方法。本文报告了这种过滤器从呼气中去除细菌效率的实验室评估。志愿者通过过滤器向血琼脂平板呼出100次正常呼吸或4次用力呼气。将琼脂平板上的细菌计数与过滤器上可回收的细菌计数进行比较。用力呼气的总挑战范围为161 - 84,200个菌落形成单位。10名志愿者的计算效率为99.9%。对于正常呼吸，挑战范围为0 - 262,000个菌落形成单位。所有血琼脂平板上均未生长。这些过滤器在去除呼出细菌方面似乎非常高效。
