FREE NEJM E-TOC    HOME   |   SUBSCRIBE   |   CURRENT ISSUE   |   PAST ISSUES   |   COLLECTIONS   |   Search Term  Advanced Search

Sign in | Get NEJM's E-Mail Table of Contents — Free | Subscribe

Previous Volume 331:1212-1215 November 3, 1994 Number 18 Next

	Since this article has no abstract, we have provided an extract of the first 100 words of the full text and any section headings.

	Full Text Purchase this article Add to Personal Archive Add to Citation Manager Notify a Friend E-mail When Cited PubMed Citation

The traditional method of identifying a pathogen by culturing it is a key element in forging the causal link between a particular disease and a specific microorganism. However, many kinds of infectious agents, including mycobacteria, fungi, and viruses, either are fastidious and grow slowly or cannot be cultured. In these instances, serologic or histologic methods may identify the infectious agent. Nevertheless, these methods usually yield only circumstantial evidence of infection. Pathologists 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. These advances . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Source Information

From the Department of Pathology, Baystate Medical Center, Springfield, MA 01199, where reprint requests should be addressed to Dr. Naber.

Recommended Reading

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Louie, M., Louie, L., Simor, A. E. (2000). The role of DNA amplification technology in the diagnosis of infectious diseases. CMAJ 163: 301-309 [Abstract] [Full Text]