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2015
Journal Article
Titel
A reference technique to compare the antimicrobial properties of atmospheric pressure plasma sources
Abstract
Medical devices need to submit stringent controls to gain a high quality standard. Therefore, international comparability has to be ensured between the laboratories or the producing industries via globally standardized assays. For medically used plasma sources, we developed a microbial assay that allows comparison of plasma sources with different designs. In the present case, test sources are an atmospheric pressure plasma jet (kINPen MED, neoplasm tools GmbH, Greifswald, Germany) and a surface dielectric barrier discharge. Beforehand, both sources were tested for their antimicrobial antimicrobial effectiveness. We normalized the data by the treated surface area and thereby defined a smallest treated unit area. Subsequently, the values were used to obtain inactivation kinetics for comparison. By normalizing the data obtained from treatment by different plasma sources we were able to compare plasma sources, independent of the treatment time. To produce an extensive overv iew, the assay was carried out with Escherichia coli K12 (gram-negative), Staphylococcus aureus (grampositive), and Candida albicans (yeast). The microorganisms revealed different inactivation kinetics, which offered for all tested objects the highest test stability in the stationary phase. Thus, to gain the most conclusive test data, microorganisms in the stationary phase are recommended for the assay. © 2015 by Begell House, Inc.