Uses and Abuses of the Polymerase Chain Reaction in Ocular Infectious Disease

The polymerase chain reaction is a powerful molecular biology technique that allows the generation of analytic quantities of nucleic acids from infinitesimal amounts of starting material. It is used clinically to detect DNA or RNA belonging to pathogens in infected tissues. Recent advances have improved the sensitivity and specificity of this technique for the detection of pathogen. Other techniques have improved the speed with which diagnoses can be made.