Sterile container

The prepared stent was put into a sterile container (Bandelin, Germany) and completely covered with 5–10 mL of Brain Heart Infusion Broth (Becton Dickinson, Franklin Lakes, NJ, USA). To disrupt the advice microorganism on the inner surface of the stent, the specimen was vortexed for 30 s and subsequently exposed to low-frequency (40 kHz) ultrasound for 15 min [26 (link)]. Thereafter, the container was vortexed again for 30 s. Aliquots of the sonication fluid were cultivated on conventional solid media, 5% (v/v) sheep blood agar, MacConkey agar and Sabouraud agar (Becton Dickinson). The plates were incubated at 37 °C in an aerobic atmosphere overnight. Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-time of flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrometer (Bruker Daltonics, Billerica, MA, USA was used for genus and species of microrganism [27 (link)].

In the microbiology laboratory, the prepared stent was put into a sterile container (Bandelin, Germany) and completely covered with 50 ml of sterile Ringer’s solution. To disrupt the biofilm on the inner surface of the stent, the specimen was vortexed for 30 seconds and subsequently exposed to low-frequency (40 kHz) ultrasound for 15 minutes, as described previously [10 (link),29 (link),30 (link)]. Sonication was performed in an ultrasound bath specially designed for microbiological analysis (BactoSonic^®; Bandelin, Germany). Thereafter, the container was vortexed again for 30 seconds.