In this master's thesis, we analysed the microbiological air qulity in three laboratories with different levels of microbial contamination: the Laboratory fort he Diagnosis of Fungal Infections (GLI), the Laboratory for Blood Cultures and Other Urgent Microbiological Tests (HEM) and the Laboratory for Syndromic Diagnostics and Molecular Bacteriology (SMB). Two smpling approaches were applied: passive method – IMA (1-hour exposure of agar plates) and EMA (4-hour exposure) – and active method involving the intake of defined volume of air. The highest microbial load was recorded in the GLI laboratory, and the lowest in the SMB laboratory. Among the bacteria, the most prevalent generea were Staphylococcus and Micrococcus, while Aspergillus and Penicillium dominated among the fungi. We also identified the presence of the laboratoy contaminant Chryosonilia sitophila. Statistical analysis using Spearman's correlation showed a statistically significant association between the IMA and EMA methods in the GLI and HEM laboratories, indicating their comparability in environments with higher microbial loads. The active method proved to be more sensitive only in the environment with lower microbial contamination-the SMB laboratory. We conclude that passive methods are sufficient for a basic assessment of microbial air burden in spaces with higher contamination levels. However, for precise quantification in cleaner environments, the use of active sampling is recommended.
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