PCR technology: in which stage of technical development is?

Abstract

Due to the limitations of the methods commonly used for the study of Legionella, molecular diagnostic methods such as the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) have become the best alternative to conventional ones, mainly due to their rapidness, sensitivity and specificity. Nevertheless, despite the multiple advantages of PCR, their implementation in diagnostic laboratories is being slow, due to, on one hand to the lack of standarization of these methods, but also due to the lack of legislations that include them and to the technical difficulty of their implementation. Nevertheless, their progressive incorporation to laboratories, by means of the validation of “in house” methods or using available commercial kits, will favour the performance of normalization works and will facilitate the use of more automated future technologies.