A biological indicator with variable resistance may be controlled by moving a cap or housing of the biological indicator to cause the size of vents that allow flow of sterilant through the housing to decrease or increase in effective size. An indicator window may show a user the current resistance of the biological indicator, and may also show a readable indicator that may be captured by a scanner to allow a sterilizing cabinet to identify the current resistance. When the level of resistance shown by the readable indicator is not compatible with a sterilization cycle selected by a user, the procedure may be delayed and a notification provided to the user that a problem exists. The readable indicator may be a passive tag with a memory that allows information to be read and written, so that the biological indicator may carry data from one device to another.一種具有可變阻力之生物指示劑可藉由移動該生物指示劑之一帽蓋或殼體以致使允許滅菌劑流動通過該殼體之通氣口大小的有效大小減小或增加來控制。一指示劑窗可向使用者顯示該生物指示劑的當前阻力，且亦可顯示可藉由一掃描器來擷取以允許一滅菌櫃識別當前阻力之一可讀指示劑。當該可讀指示劑所示之阻力位準與使用者所選之一滅菌循環不相容時，可延遲該程序並向使用者提供存在問題的通知。該可讀指示劑可係具有一記憶體之一被動標籤，其允許資訊被讀取及寫入，以便該生物指示劑可自一裝置攜帶資料至另一者。
