IDEXX, which supplies rapid microbiological test kits for water, says a peer-reviewed pan-European study in The Journal of Water and Health concludes that the IDEXX Pseudalert/ Quanti-Tray method for rapid detection of Pseudomonas aeruginosa produces confirmed results faster than the standard reference ISO 16266 and MoDW Part 8 PACN agar membrane filtration methods, with no further confirmation steps.
The authors also concluded that Pseudalert/Quanti-tray was ‘a valid alternative method for hospital water analysis’.
The study, ‘Evaluation of an MPN test for the rapid enumeration of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in hospital waters’, undertaken on routine hospital water samples (80 from six laboratories), and artificially contaminated samples (192 from five), compared the performance of the traditional membrane filtration technique, which produces presumptive positive results in a 40-48 hour timeframe, with the Pseudalert/Quanti-Tray test, which gives confirmed results after 24 hours. IDEXX said: “For routine samples, the data indicated at least equivalent performance of Pseudalert/Quanti-Tray, while for the artificially contaminated samples, the data revealed higher counts of P. aeruginosa being recorded by Pseudalert/Quanti-Tray.”
