Investigation of ventilation conditions associated with CO 2 concentration changes in ultrasonographic exam room from the perspective of COVID-19 infection control

  1. Roka N Matsubayashi
  2. Shino Harada
  3. Mitsuhiro Tominaga

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Abstract

Objectives

Ventilation is an important factor in preventing COVID-19 infection. To clarify the state of ventilation in ultrasonic exam rooms, as an index of ventilation rate, the carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration in our exam rooms was measured.

Methods

We measured the CO 2 concentration in each exam room before the examination and 0–15 minutes after end of the exam.

The subjects were 70 cases (abdomen: 24, breast: 16, neck: 16, and musculoskeletal: 14). In infant cases, one parent accompanied the patient during the examination.

Results

The highest CO 2 concentration was 2261 ppm, observed after the breast examination. In all cases, the CO 2 concentration in the exam room was highest immediately after the examination or two minutes after. Almost all cases had recovered to within 120% of the pre-examination CO 2 concentrations within 15 minutes after the examination. The average CO 2 concentration after ultrasonography was significantly higher for breast examinations than others.

Conclusions

Even in a hospital with modern ventilation equipment, the CO 2 concentration in the ultrasound room was high after the exam and it takes 15 minutes to recover to the pre-exam state. Care must be taken to ensure adequate ventilation in ultrasonographic facilities.

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  1. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2021.03.01.21252598: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board StatementIRB: Therefore, the Institutional Review Board of the National Hospital Organization Kyushu Medical Center determined that no ethical review was necessary because the study did not involve human subjects.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    No key resources detected.

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:
    The current study has several limitations: it is a study of a single facility and a specific environment, and more precision-controlled methods are required for a rigorous assessment of air quality.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.

  2. Version published to 10.1101/2021.03.01.21252598v1 on medRxiv