The comparative performance of three brands of portable ATP-bioluminometer intended for use in hospital infection control
G. S. Whiteley A B C , C. Derry A and T. Glasbey B
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A School of Science and Health, University of Western Sydney, Penrith, NSW 2751, Australia.
B Whiteley Corporation, 12 Mount Street, North Sydney, NSW 2060, Australia.
C Corresponding author. Email: gsw@whiteley.com.au
Healthcare Infection 17(3) 91-97 https://doi.org/10.1071/HI12021
Submitted: 12 July 2012 Accepted: 19 July 2012 Published: 28 August 2012
Abstract
Background: Portable adenosine triphosphate (ATP)-bioluminometers have been used in the food industry to monitor the effectiveness of surface cleaning but their intended use in hospital infection control suggests a need for instrument validation to confirm effective technology transfer.
Methods: The performance of three readily available brands of portable bioluminometer was compared in terms of their ability to generate relative light units (RLU) from a range of standard ATP solutions. Quality control of standards was carried out using high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC).
Results: There was no significant difference (P = 0.05) in the ability of different meters to effectively measure hygiene change on a log scale in a central measurement range of 0.001 to 1.0 mg L–1 ATP. Outside this range meter performance deteriorated, with the possibility of individual and comparative measurement error. No out-of-range warning system existed for any of the meters. While different brands generated widely different log10RLU values for fixed quantities of ATP in this range, curve similarities suggested standardisation possibilities to enable comparison of results. Testing at a higher level of resolution in the 0.0001 to 0.002 mg L–1 ATP range proximate to a proposed 100 RLU cleaning benchmark also revealed poor repeatability as a potential for measurement error.
Conclusions: Portable ATP-bioluminometers, when used to indicate surface cleaning effectiveness, demonstrate reliable performance when measuring over a very wide range of ATP concentrations. Monitoring hygiene in terms of an absolute threshold value such as a cleaning benchmark may, however, be invalid as a concept when using existing portable ATP-bioluminometer technology.
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