PCR Is Changing Clinical Diagnostics: PCR outperforms traditional culture-based diagnostic procedures that often miss bacteria when they fail to grow

PCR combined with mass spectrometry is providing a whole new way to identify bacteria, particularly clinically important pathogens. For years, unculturable bacteria troubled physicians observing signs in their patients that were characteristic of infections while reading “no growth” on lab reports. Indeed, culture-based microbiological techniques are severely limited in their ability to detect pathogens. Culture-negative infections result primarily from bacteria adopting the biofilm mode of growth or responding to bacteriostatic antibiotics.