Premium
DNA diagnosis of pulmonary infections: Particular emphasis on Mycobacterium tuberculosis
Author(s) -
TAN Wan C,
TAN Meng F
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
respirology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.857
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1440-1843
pISSN - 1323-7799
DOI - 10.1111/j.1440-1843.1996.tb00008.x
Subject(s) - medicine , mycobacterium tuberculosis , pulmonary tuberculosis , tuberculosis , immunology , intensive care medicine , microbiology and biotechnology , pathology , biology
The past two decades have brought significant changes to the clinical laboratory. Microbiologists now have highly sensitive, rapid and specific molecular methods of identifying infectious agents by the direct detection of DNA or RNA sequences unique to a particular organism. Advanced DNA technology such as nucleic‐acid hybridization, PCR and DNA fingerprinting have been used in the direct detection of causative organisms in clinical specimens, with resultant benefits such as increased sensitivity and specificity of the diagnostic approach and reduction of turnaround time. This review outlines a brief description of the various DNA diagnostic tools used in the detection of pulmonary infections with emphasis on their applications in the diagnosis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis.