Evaluation of the ChemScan system for rapid microbiological analysis of pharmaceutical water

The ChemScan system is a new method for the rapid detection and enumeration of viable microbial cells. It is based on the fluorescent labeling of viable microorganisms collected on a filter membrane and their subsequent automated detection and enumeration by a laser-scanning instrument. The new method was evaluated for the testing of pharmaceutical water by comparison with the standard plate count method. The ChemScan system appeared to be at least as sensitive as the standard method. In some cases the results were equivalent for both methods, but for most water samples the ChemScan results were higher than the standard plate count and sometimes exceeded the latter by an order of magnitude or more.