[Molecular diagnosis of infectious diseases]

Application of techniques originally developed for the analyses of nucleic acids to the diagnosis and characterization of infectious diseases is increasingly practiced. This tendency has been intensified after the introduction of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). With the PCR, the molecular diagnostic assays have achieved a high sensitivity that parallels and often exceeds the sensitivity of various culture methods. This means that we are entering a new era in which a new gold standard is to be established. In this review, we summarized the basic principle of molecular diagnostic methods, presented, as an example, the application of such techniques to the study of rotaviruses, the single most important etiological agent of acute diarrhea in children, and finally discussed briefly possible future trends of molecular diagnostics for infectious diseases at large.