PCR Is Changing Clinical Diagnostics

PCR combined with mass spectrometry is providing a whole new way to identify bacteria, particularly clinically important pathogens. For years, unculturable bacteria troubled physicians observing signs in their patients that were characteristic of infections while reading “no growth” on lab reports. Indeed, culture-based microbiological techniques are severely limited in their ability to detect pathogens. Culture-negative infections result primarily from bacteria adopting the biofilm mode of growth or responding to bacteriostatic antibiotics.