Molecular Microbiological Testing

The application of molecular testing methods in the clinical laboratory has dramatically improved our ability to diagnose infectious diseases. Nucleic acid techniques, such as plasmid profiling, various methods for generating restriction fragment length polymorphisms and the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) are making increasing inroads into clinical laboratories. However, the clinical usefulness of molecular testing will only be maximized to its fullest benefit by appropriate and careful studies correlating clinical findings with assay results.