RESEARCH ARTICLE
Polymerase Chain Reaction in Intraocular Inflammation
Krishnendu Nandi, Prabhat Ranjan, Lily Therese , Jyotirmay Biswas*
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2008Volume: 2
First Page: 141
Last Page: 145
Publisher ID: TOOPHTJ-2-141
DOI: 10.2174/1874364100802010141
Article History:
Received Date: 9/7/2008Revision Received Date: 6/8/2008
Acceptance Date: 15/9/2008
Electronic publication date: 22/10/2008
Collection year: 2008
open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/), which permits unrestrictive use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a technique involving enzymatic amplification of nucleic acid sequences in repeated cycles of denaturation, oligonucleotide annealing and DNA polymerase extension. It is a powerful molecular biologic tool that allows the rapid production of analytic quantities of DNA from small amounts of starting material. PCR can be performed on nearly any ocular specimen or biopsy. For diagnosis of uveitis, the obtained sample is usually an anterior chamber paracentesis or vitreous tap. PCR potentially is more sensitive than culture for detection of many organisms. By utilizing a secondary detection system in concert with the initial PCR reaction, perfect specificity can be assured. The initial application of PCR diagnostics to ophthalmic disease was in the detection of viral uveitis. PCR has also been implicated in studies of noninfectious uveitis. The most common application is HLA typing. A universal bacterial PCR can be very helpful for the diagnosis of bacterial endophthalmitis at an early stage of the disease.
