Annotation New rapid microbiological diagnostic techniques

Objective : To briefly and critically review the role of new, rapid techniques, especially PCR, in the diagnosis of infectious diseases. Methodology : Review of the literature. Results : New diagnostic techniques show great promise but many techniques are still in their infancy and the relative roles of the various methods remain uncertain. Conclusions : It seems likely that different techniques will continue to be useful in a number of different contexts. No one technique is likely to become ‘diagnostically dominant’ in the foreseeable future.