HERTSMI and ERMI Mold Scores Related to Safety

PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS

While high scores of both ERMI and HERTSMI-2 accurately predicted markedly

increased risk of recrudescence, only low HERTSMI-2 predicted safety from reexposure

for patients who had prior CIRS-WDB. Use of HERTSMI-2 is inexpensive,

reproducibly reliable and predictive of mold associated re-exposure from water

damaged buildings (WDB), especially for sub-optimally remediated buildings.

The evidence presented confirms that data from MSQPCR testing can alert patients with

CIRS-WDB and their health care providers to possible problems with re-entry to previously

affected WDB. Use of HERTSMI-2 is confirmed to show predictive accuracy of over 97% for

patients with low or high scores. Indeterminate values demand additional building evaluation

and remediation before permitting re-entry of patients with previously confirmed CIRS-WDB.

Given the low cost (~US $150) and rapid turnaround provided by mycology labs that satisfy

all MSQPCR testing requirements, HERTSMI-2 testing can avoid dangerous exacerbation of

health effects for buildings with high HERTSMI-2 scores and provide reasonable expectations

for safety with cautious re-entry when the HERTSMI-2 scores are low (<10).