[The novel multiplex PCRs and their applications in respiratory viruses diagnosis]

Acute respiratory tract infections (ARTIs) are widely distributed among the population, mainly caused by respiratory viruses. ARTIs are responsible for significant morbidity and mortality among the elderly and infants or young children, causing a serious economic burden. The rapid and accurate identifi cation of a pathogen will provide a guideline for the clinical diagnosis and therapy. Multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technologies combine the rapidness and high sensitivity of PCR with high through put, thus achieving the capability of detecting multiple pathogens simultaneously. The commercial kits based on these multiplex PCR methods allow to detect more than twelve respiratory viruses simultaneous ly, reaching the comparable sensitivities and specificities to those of real-time PCR. The recent progress of novel multiplex PCR assays and their principles as well as applications in respiratory virus diagnosis were reviewed in this paper.