Medical microbiological instruments

1)- Biological safety cabinets BSCs:

Are enclosed, ventilated hoods or workspaces that allow for the safe handling of
pathogens, contaminants, and other potentially hazardous materials.

Purpose:
i. Personal protection.
ii. Environmental protection.
iii. Product protection.

• Classes and Types of Biological Safety Cabinets (BSC):

A)- Class I Biological Safety Cabinet:
▪ Class I BSCs provide personnel and environmental protection, but do not
provide product protection.
▪ The Class I BSC has a HEPA filtration system that handles the air exiting the
unit, providing protection for the environment.
▪ Class I BSCs are suitable for work with Risk Group 1 (RG1), Risk Group 2 (RG2),
and Risk Group 3 (RG3) biological material.
B)- Class II Biological Safety Cabinet
▪ Class II hoods provide personnel, environmental, and product protection for a
range of low- to moderate-risk materials.

▪ These biological safety cabinets are used in research, clinical, industrial, and
pharmacy settings.

▪ Class II BSCs are suitable for work with Risk Group 2(RG2), Risk Group3 (RG3),
and Risk Group4 (RG4) biological material.
C)-Class III Biological Safety Cabinet:

• Class III cabinets are utilized for working with highly infectious
microbiological agents and for the conduct of hazardous operations.

• This class provides maximum protection for both the worker and the
environment.

• The Class III BSC is a gas-tight enclosure with a non-opening view window.

• Access for passage of materials into the cabinet is through a dunk tank, which
is accessible through the cabinet floor, or through a double-door pass-
through box (e.g., an autoclave sterilizer) that can be decontaminated
between uses.

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 • Reversing the process allows materials to be safely removed from the
cabinet.

• Gloves are attached to the unit, utilizing gas-tight ports, to allow users to
directly manipulate the materials inside the cabinet.

• Both the supply and exhaust air of the Class III BSC are stringently HEPA
filtered.

• The air that is exhausted from the unit must pass through two HEPA filters or
through a HEPA-filtration in combination with an air incinerator before the
air is discharged directly outdoors.

• used for Risk Group 4 agents.

Risk assessments:
Is to classify microorganisms into four categories on the basis of the hazards they
cause.
A)- Risk group I: include agents not known to cause disease in healthy adults and
minimal hazard to laboratory personnel & community e.g. E.coli.
B)- Risk group II : agents of moderate potential hazard to personnel & community.
Hazard is related to percutaneous inoculation or ingestion e.g. salmonella , hepatitis
B virus.

C)- Risk group III: agents which may cause serious or potentially lethal diseases as a
result of exposure by the inhalation route e.g. Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
D)- Risk group IV: agents that pose a high individual risk of aerosol transmitted
laboratory infection & life threatening disease with no available vaccine or therapy
e.g. Ebola virus.

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2)- Autoclave:
▪ Autoclaves are also known as steam sterilizers, and are typically used for
healthcare or industrial applications.
▪ An autoclave is a machine that uses steam under pressure to kill harmful
bacteria, viruses, fungi, and spores on items that are placed inside a pressure
vessel.
▪ The items are heated to an appropriate sterilization temperature for a given
amount of time.
▪ The moisture in the steam efficiently transfers heat to the items to destroy
the protein structure of the bacteria and spores.
▪ High pressure is applied ( 15.03 p/si ) above atmospheric pressure with a
recommended temperature of 250°F (121°C) for 15-20 minutes to sterilize
the equipments.

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3)- Hot air oven:
• Are electrical device which use dry heat to sterilization of articles that
withstand high temperature and do not get burned e.g. Glass-wares,
powders, forceps, scissors, scalpels, glass syringes, pharmaceutical
products like liquid paraffin, fats, grease, and dusting powder, etc
• Dry heat causes most of the injury by oxidizing particles.
• The primary cell components are damaged and the organism dies.
• The temperature is kept for about an hour to eliminate the most ambitious of
the resistant spores.
• The temperature ranging from (160 – 180 degrees Celsius ) for 1-3 hrs.

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4)- Incubator:
▪ Bacteriological incubators provide a controlled environment in order
to promote the growth of bacteria or other microorganisms in
various culture media.
▪ They are insulated enclosures that are thermostatically regulated to
maintain a constant temperature.
▪ In medicine, such incubators are used to identify disease-causing
microorganisms taken from patients.
▪ A sample of the patient’s blood, sputum, mucus, or other secretion is
placed in a culture medium inside the incubator, and, after the
microorganisms in the sample have multiplied, they can be identified
with greater certainty.

5)- Anaerobic Jar:

• Is an instrument used in the production of an anaerobic environment for the
growth of anaerobes, microaerophiles, and capnophiles.
• This system uses a GasPak generator that consist of a foil package that
generates hydrogen and carbon dioxide upon the addition of water.
• The palladium catalyst in the lid of the jar combines the evolved hydrogen
with residual oxygen to form water, thereby creating CO2 environment
within the jar for anaerobic growth.

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 • The establishment of anaerobic conditions is verified by the color change of a
methylene blue indicator strip in the jar( this strip colorless in absence of
O2).

5)- Colony counter:

▪ Is an instrument that is commonly used to count colonies of bacteria or
other microorganisms on a plate containing a gelled growth medium.
▪ The colony counter is used for microbiology applications for fast and accurate
counting of bacterial and mould colonies.
▪ A colony forming unit, or CFU, is a unit commonly used to estimate the
concentration of microorganisms in a test sample.
▪ The number of microbes/ml= number of colonies x dilution of the sample.

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