Whiteley Corporation, North Sydney, Australia; Western Sydney University, School of Medicine, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
Whiteley Corporation, North Sydney, Australia; Macquarie University, Faculty of Medicine and Health Science, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
Am J Infect Control. 2018 Aug;46(8):887-892. doi: 10.1016/j.ajic.2018.01.028. Epub 2018 Mar 16.
Australia has established guidelines on cleaning for reusable ultrasound probes and accompanying equipment. This is a preliminary study investigating cleanliness standards of patient-ready ultrasound equipment in 5 separate health care facilities within a major city.
The cleanliness was assessed using rapid adenosine triphosphate (ATP) testing used with a sampling algorithm which mitigates variability normally associated with ATP testing. Each surface was initially sampled in duplicate for relative light units (RLUs) and checked for compliance with literature recommended levels of cleanliness (<100 RLUs). Triplicate sampling was undertaken where necessary. A cleaning intervention step (CIS) followed using a disposable detergent wipe, and the surface was retested for ATP.
There were 253 surfaces tested from the 5 health care facilities with 26% (66/253) demonstrating either equivocal or apparent lack of cleanliness. The CIS was conducted on 148 surfaces and demonstrated that for >91% (135/148) of surfaces, the cleaning standards could be improved significantly (P > .001). For 6% (9/148) of devices and surfaces, the CIS needed to be repeated at least once to achieve the intended level of cleanliness (<25 RLUs).
This study indicates that ATP testing is an effective, real-time, quality assurance tool for cleanliness monitoring of ultrasound probes and associated equipment.
澳大利亚已经制定了有关可重复使用超声探头和配套设备清洁的指南。这是一项初步研究，调查了一个主要城市的 5 家不同医疗机构中准备用于患者的超声设备的清洁标准。
使用与采样算法相结合的快速三磷酸腺苷 (ATP) 测试来评估清洁度，该算法可减轻与 ATP 测试相关的通常的变异性。每个表面最初用相对光单位 (RLU) 进行两次重复采样，并检查其是否符合文献推荐的清洁度标准(<100 RLU)。必要时进行三重采样。随后进行清洁干预步骤 (CIS)，使用一次性去污布擦拭，并对 ATP 进行重新测试。
从 5 家医疗机构共检测了 253 个表面，其中 26%（66/253）表现出清洁度不确定或明显不足。对 148 个表面进行了 CIS，结果表明，对于>91%（135/148）的表面，可以显著提高清洁标准（P>.001）。对于 6%（9/148）的设备和表面，需要至少重复一次 CIS 才能达到预期的清洁度(<25 RLU)。
本研究表明，ATP 测试是一种有效的、实时的、用于超声探头和相关设备清洁度监测的质量保证工具。
