Table 7: GRADE Profile Question: What is the Benefit of Adding Ultraviolet Germicidal Irradiation Air Cleaning Technology to an In-Room Air Clean That Uses a HEPA Filter?
| Quality Assessment | Summary of Findings | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| N (no. of experimental runs) | Effect | |||||||||
| Comparison (study) |
Design | Quality | Consistency | Directness | Other modifying factors | HEPA* only | HEPA + UVGI* | Relative Risk (95% CI) |
Quality | Outcome |
| Outcome: Equivalent Air Changes Per Hour (eACH) | ||||||||||
| (Miller and Hernandez, 2002) | Cross-over laboratory studies† | Some limitations‡ | One study | Some uncertainty§ | None | 6 | 6 | N/A | Low | Important |
| Quality GRADE | High | moderate |  |
low | low | |||||
*
HEPA indicates high-efficiency particulate air; UVGI, ultraviolet germicidal irradiation.
†
Author indicated that air cleaners were evaluated in no particular order.
‡
Scientific expert had some methodological criticisms including that the investigators used glass impingers (AGI-30), whereas it might have been better to use a slit sampler to generate time-related data.
§
Author converted room airborne pathogen concentration counts to equivalent air changes per hour.