The alternative microbiological methods for monitoring the quality of water for dialysis

• Grant number: 17/13374-7
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: March 01, 2018
• End date: February 29, 2020
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Collective Health - Public Health
• Principal Investigator: Adriana Bugno
• Grantee: Adriana Bugno
• Host Institution: Instituto Adolfo Lutz (IAL). Coordenadoria de Controle de Doenças (CCD). Secretaria da Saúde (São Paulo - Estado). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Terezinha de Jesus Andreoli Pinto

Abstract

The microbiological quality of the water for dialysis use is directly associated with the occurrence of infections and pyrogenic reactions, and the water quality for human consumption and also the produced water should be concerned on the microbiological contamination control. However, the majority of contamination cases give rise to the inadequate maintenance of treatment system, to the water distribution, and to the alteration on the integrity of dialyzers membranes. In spite of the bacterial contamination has been the most common occurrence, notably by Gram-negative bacteria, the other microorganisms might be involved in this episode as fungi, virus, protozoons and cyanobacteria. Characteristic of the treatment system and the distribution of water for dialysis increase the contamination susceptibility, and the biofilms formation including in the hydraulic system of dialysis devices. Once it occurs, the microbes persistence is promoted and it turns into as a permanent source of bacteria and endotoxins. Therefore, considering the potential risk of water quality might cause to the patients, it is needed to conduct a study for establishing the minimun quality standard related to the heterotrophic bacteria load, to the occurrence of total coliforms and to the bacterial endotoxins contents. Considering that the microbiological quality of water is a critical parameter of the system and the inconveniences of taking long period of time for obtaining the analytical results which are demanded by the official methods, the search for the alternative methodologies have increased for being used to guarantee the occurrence of low risk of microbial failure condition, which allow to get the most efficient results at shorter time, and to increase the analytical efficiency to assure the quality of the water for dialysis purpose. However, this application depends on the clear indication of their equivalences to the official methods. This study aims at evaluating the performance of some alternative technologies for assessing the microbiological quality of treated water for dialysis use. (AU)