Your assignment is to prepare and submit a paper on important biofilms in clinical microbiology.

Your assignment is to prepare and submit a paper on important biofilms in clinical microbiology. The microorganisms growing in these biofilms have become resistant to the antimicrobial agents. These biofilms are now found on the medical devices and this creates a problem. Many diseases such as cystic fibrosis and the valve endocarditis are associated with biofilms. (Donlan and Costerton 2002, Watnick 2000).

The presence of these microorganisms on the surface is determined by the colony forming units. This is the traditional method of determination of the adherent cells on the surface. The disadvantage of this method is that the CFU varies for the different methods of identification such as fluorescent micro scoping and electron microscopy. This method is widely used for the identification of the low concentration of the bacteria on the sea water, sewage water and on the earth sludge. The evaluation of the samples using the scanning electron microscope is difficult because of the requirement of the high vacuum. And the three-dimensional structure visualization of the structure is limited here. The determination of the biofilms thickness, density, porosity, roughness, bio-volume is required for the evaluation and the quantification of the biofilms. (Hannig et. al 2010).

Biofilms are clinically important. More than 80% of the infections cause4d in our body are based on the biofilms. The major infections in our body includes infections in the soft tissues, middle ear, dental implants, urogenital tract, eye, urinary tract prostheses, infections on the peritoneal membrane and the peritoneal dialysis catheters, hemodialysis catheters , cardiac implants in our body such as pacemakers, ventricular assist devices and prosthetic heart valves, internal fixation devices, tracheal and ventilator tubing and percutaneous sutures. Though the non-mucosal layer resists the entry of the pathogens into the body, the bacteria have been found to adopt numerous strategies for the action against the antimicrobial. The scientists say many reasons for this antimicrobial activity such as efflux, biofilms formation and the cell wall permeability and sometimes the expression of the genes that are mediating the inactivating enzymes.&nbsp.&nbsp.