. 2020 Dec 23;105:103556. doi: 10.1016/j.jdent.2020.103556

Table 2.

Sensitivity of measurement for contamination measure (separate for microbiological, blood and visual for spatter).

	Blood agar used?	Incubation environment	Incubation duration (days)
Measurement of microbial contamination
Low	The study did not use blood agar as growth media.	Aerobic environment was used.	Incubation time (1–3 days) was unsatisfactory for cultivating a wide range of bacteria with different replication rate.
Low	Not stated.	Not stated	Not stated.
Moderate	The study used blood agar as growth media.	Aerobic or anaerobic (in consideration to other parameters).	The study used a moderate incubation time for cultivating a moderate range of bacteria with different replication rate.
High	The study used blood agar as growth media.	Anaerobic environment was adopted that allowed.	Incubation time (7 days or more) was satisfactory for cultivating a wide range of bacteria with different replication rate.
Measurement of blood contamination
Low	Visible detection with no other equipment used.
Moderate	Visible detection with the use of visibility of enhancers (e.g. fluorescent dye).
High	Sophisticated method used for blood detection such as DNA detection with PCR.
Measurement of non-microbial and non-blood contamination
Low	Visible detection with no other equipment used.
	Used test with no consideration of dilution effect of blood in interpretation (false negatives).
	Used test with no consideration of impact of hypochlorite in interpretation of surfaces in dental settings (false positives at higher dilutions which is relevant for surfaces rather than gowns/masks/drapes)
Moderate	Visible detection with the use of visibility of enhancers (e.g. fluorescent dye).
High	Direct testing; Used agents appropriately, these agents include: • Kastle–Meyer (KM) reagent using phenolphthalein followed by hydrogen peroxide 3 % • Leucomalachite green (LMG) reagent followed by hydrogen peroxide 3 % • Luminol Considered dilution effect of blood in interpretation as suggested by (2014; 2006)): • MG: neat blood to dilution to 10⁻³ Gives 100 % positive results (less sensitivity with more dilution but still 54.4% at 10^-7) • LMG: neat blood to dilution of 10⁻² Gives 100 % positive results (less sensitivity with more dilution but still 33.3% at 10^-7); and Considered impact of hypochlorite in interpretation of dental settings (relevant for surfaces rather than gowns/masks/drapes).