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Review
. 2017 Jun;58(2):E177-E183.

Effectiveness of ATP bioluminescence to assess hospital cleaning: a review

N Nante  1 , E Ceriale  2 , G Messina  1 , D Lenzi  3 , P Manzi  3
Affiliations
Review

Effectiveness of ATP bioluminescence to assess hospital cleaning: a review

N Nante et al. J Prev Med Hyg. 2017 Jun.

Abstract

Introduction: Contamination of hospital surfaces plays an important role in the transmission of several healthcare-associated microorganisms, therefore methods for evaluating hospital surfaces' cleaning gain particular importance. Among these, there are visual inspection, quantitative microbiology, fluorescent markers and adenosine triphosphate (ATP) bioluminescence. The latter seems to provide interesting features, detecting the presence of ATP on surface (as Relative Light Units, RLU), a proxy of organic matter and microbial contamination. Several studies have investigated the effectiveness of this technology; with this research, we aim to summarize the most significant results.

Methods: A systematic review was conducted. The keywords (namely, "ATP", "bioluminescence", "hospital" and "surfaces") were searched in PubMed/MEDLINE and Scopus databases, in order to find relevant data, from January 2000 to October 2014. After the selection, we globally considered 27 articles.

Results: Most of the studies were conducted in United Kingdom and in USA. Different threshold RLU benchmark values were identified by analyzed studies. Fourteen of these researches compared the ATP bioluminescence with microbiological methods, 11 identified a significant correlation between the two methods, although poor or not complete for 5.

Discussion: ATP bioluminescence is not a standardized methodology: each tool has different benchmark values, not always clearly defined. At the moment, we can say that the technique could be used to assess, in real time, hospital surfaces where cleanliness is required, but not sterility.

Keywords: ATP Bioluminescence; Healthcare-Associated Infections; Hospital Surfaces.

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Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) flowchart - Studies selection.
Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.
The benchmark Relative Light Units (RLU) values according to the different brands of bioluminometers used in the studies included in the current review.
Fig. 3.
Fig. 3.
The benchmark Relative Light Units (RLU) values according to geographical provenance of studies.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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