National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, United States of America.
Laboratory Leadership Service Fellowship, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2020 Apr 17;15(4):e0231093. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0231093. eCollection 2020.
Maintaining cold chain while transporting medical supplies and samples is difficult in remote settings. Failure to maintain temperature requirements can lead to degraded sample quality and inaccuracies in sample analysis. We performed a systematic analysis on different types of transport coolers (polystyrene foam, injection-molded, and rotational molded) and transport coolants (ice, cold packs, frozen water bottles) frequently in use in many countries. Polystyrene foam coolers stayed below our temperature threshold (6°C) longer than almost all other types of coolers, but were not durable. Injection-molded coolers were durable, but warmed to 6°C the quickest. Rotational molded coolers were able to keep temperatures below our threshold for 24 hours longer than injection molded coolers and were highly durable. Coolant systems were evaluated in terms of cost and their ability to maintain cold temperatures. Long lasting commercial cold packs were found to be less cost effective and were below freezing for the majority of the testing period. Frozen plastic water bottles were found to be a reusable and economical choice for coolant and were only below freezing briefly. Finally, we modeled the coolers performance at maintaining internal temperatures below 6°C and built a highly accurate linear model to predict how long a cooler will remain below 6°C. We believe this data may be useful in the planning and design of specimen transportation systems in the field, particularly in remote or resource limited settings.
在偏远地区运输医疗用品和样本时，保持冷链十分困难。如果不能满足温度要求，可能会导致样本质量下降和分析结果不准确。我们对许多国家常用的不同类型的运输冷藏箱（聚苯乙烯泡沫、注塑和旋转模塑）和运输冷却剂（冰、冰袋、冷冻水瓶）进行了系统分析。聚苯乙烯泡沫冷藏箱保持在我们的温度阈值（6°C）以下的时间比几乎所有其他类型的冷藏箱都长，但不耐用。注塑成型的冷藏箱耐用，但升温最快，达到 6°C。旋转模塑冷藏箱能够将温度保持在我们的阈值以下 24 小时以上，而且非常耐用。冷却剂系统的评估标准是成本和保持低温的能力。长效商用冰袋的成本效益较低，在大部分测试期间都低于冰点。冷冻塑料水瓶被发现是一种可重复使用且经济实惠的冷却剂选择，而且仅在短时间内低于冰点。最后，我们对冷藏箱在保持内部温度低于 6°C 方面的性能进行了建模，并建立了一个高度精确的线性模型来预测冷藏箱在低于 6°C 下的持续时间。我们相信，这些数据可能有助于在野外规划和设计样本运输系统，特别是在偏远或资源有限的环境中。
