No abstract

The air does contains microbial agents originally coming from the soil, water, plants or animals, including men. Temperature, light and humidity are the basic factors which has influence of microbial survival and abundance. Different microorganisms travel by aerial transmission and are involved in serious processes causing pneumonia and other diseases. In our study we decided to investigate microbial load in air at the Transplant Intensive Care Unit of the University Hospital of Hradec Králové, Czech republic for two years period. Air samples were taken from the patient's breathing zone in the single rooms. Air was sampled with Biotest RCS Plus air sampler and material collected on the Total Count strips prepared with Tryptic Soy Agar. The majority of air samples (54.2%) had microbial air load ≤ 100 CFU.m-3. Very low microbial air concentration from 15 to 30 CFU.m-3 was detected in the rooms before admission of new patients. Higher concentration was detected when medical staff was present in the room and investigation or treatment was carried out. The majority of microbial findings in the air were Gram-positive cocci (coagulase-negative staphylococci, Micrococcus spp., Sarcina spp.). Findings of Gram-negative stems were sporadic (Pseudomonas aeruginosa) as well as incidence of microscopic fungi (Cladosporium spp., Penicillium spp.).

We evaluated the suitability of various primers for the RAPD (random amplified polymorphic DNA) accurate species identification and strain typing of Aspergillus clinical isolates. Five primers described previously were tested for their discriminatory power in three Aspergillus species (A. fumigatus, A. niger agg. and A. flavus - 23 clinical isolates and 2 reference strains). Clustering of RAPD fingerprints corresponded well with the identification based on morphological features. All isolates were resolved as different strains using the primer R108 and the RAPD protocol optimized for a Robocycler thermal cycler. RAPD with the primer R108 thus can be considered to be a valuable, simple and powerful tool for identification and strain delineation of Aspergillus spp.

Contamination of the air by fungi at the Transplant Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the University Hospital in Hradec KrálovÈ was investigated in 2004. Air samples were taken from the patient’s breathing zone in the single rooms, in the room used for drug preparation and from the air outside the hospital building. Air was sampled with Biotest RCS Plus air sampler and material collected on the yeasts and mould strips prepared with Rosa Bengal Streptomycin Agar. The majority of the air samples (64%) from the Transplant ICU were free of fungi. Only Cladosporium spp., Penicillium spp. and Mucor spp. were found though rarely with the load ranging from 2 to 26CFUám 3. No isolates of the opportunistic pathogen Aspergillus fumigatus strain were detected in the single rooms. In contrast, two outdoor samples were positive for this opportunistic mould.