Cultures also were taken from the heating, ventilation and cooling system and the neonatal intensive-care environment. Results showed that, before the installation, the same microbes found in the ventilation system were present in cultures from the intubated infants.

After installation, these tracheal microbes in the babies' systems fell from an average concentration of 600 bacterial-colony-forming units to less than 200 units by two months, Ryan said. "This is a real boon for our patients," she said.

Additional authors on the study were Corrinne L. Leach, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of pediatrics; Bruce A. Holm, Ph.D., senior vice provost and professor of pediatrics and gynecology and obstetrics, and Gregory E. Wilding, Ph.D., assistant professor of biostatistics, all from the UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.

Contributors from FP Technologies, Inc., were Timothy J. Leach, Fred Elder, Ph.D., Patrick M. Leach and Thomas K. Leach. The study was funded in part by an award from the New York State Office of Science, Technology and Academic Research (NYSTAR) and by FP Technologies, Inc.

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Contact: Lois Baker
ljbaker@buffalo.edu
716-645-5000 x1417
University at Buffalo
3-May-2003