Use of flow cytometry for the evaluation of disinfectant effectiveness

摘要

Flow cytometric analysis is used to evaluate various microorganisms’ susceptibility to antibacterial agents and disinfectants.This paper describes a study where Candida albicans was used to assess the method against three disinfectants.The disinfectants examined were: 70% – ethanol and two 70%- ethanol based commercial hand disinfectants with smoothing and cleaning additives. To detect the presence of damaged microbial cells EtBr was used. With the method, a 1 minute sample incubation time showed 36.25% +- 1.45 and 35.0% +-2,0 dead cells present as a result of commercial disinfectants-1 and -2, incubation; and 86.5% +-2.8 after the incubation with 70%- ethanol. With a 3 – minute incubation time, the corresponding results were 43.25% +-3.95; 43.5% +-2.6; 86.5% +-4.3. These were significant in multigroup comparison.With a 5-minute incubation time, C. albicans samples showed an antiseptic activity against the chemicals under investigation of: 85.5% +-2.7; 84.5% +-2.4 and 91.3% +-3.57 respectively. Here there was no significant difference.