ReviewThe Lancet. Infectious diseases2004
PCR-based diagnostics for infectious diseases: uses, limitations, and future applications in acute-care settings.
Review in The Lancet. Infectious diseases, 2004. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 428 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
428 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- The Use of CRISPR-Cas Systems for Viral Detection: A Bibliometric Analysis and Systematic Review.Biosensors · 2025Pooled it
- Mapping the oral resistome: a systematic review.Journal of medical microbiology · 2024Pooled it
- Predicting the presence of infectious virus from PCR data: A meta-analysis of SARS-CoV-2 in non-human primates.PLoS pathogens · 2024Pooled it
- Effects of paediatric schistosomiasis control programmes in sub-Saharan Africa: A systematic review.PloS one · 2024Pooled it
- Determination of diagnostic cycle threshold cutoffs for qPCR-based prevalence surveys of soil-transmitted helminth infections.Microbiology spectrum · 2026Trial
- Comparative performance of portable DNA extraction protocols and bioinformatics workflows for rapid detection of gram-negative bacteria and antimicrobial resistance using Oxford Nanopore sequencing.Microbiology spectrum · 2026Article
- Lab-in-a-Tube System Integrating Hierarchically Wrinkled Electrodes and DNAzyme-Functionalized Beads for Diagnosis of Clostridioides difficile Infection.Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.) · 2026Article
- Research Progress of Terahertz Technology in Microbiology.Biosensors · 2026Review
- Causes and Contributing Factors of In-Hospital and Post-Discharge Mortality Among Patients With Severe Acute Respiratory Infection in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Scoping Review.Health science reports · 2026Article
- Entropy-Driven Physical Amplification in Multivalent Biosensing.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Article
- Efforts Toward XNA PCR: Optimization and Characterization of PCR-Amplification of Chimeric 2'F XNA/DNA.ACS chemical biology · 2026Article
- Forensic Microbiomics and Trace Microbial Evidence: Molecular Innovations for Linking Suspects, Objects, and Environments.Microorganisms · 2026Review
- Review
- A total infectome framework for resolving complex disease etiology in aquaculture.Advanced biotechnology · 2026Article
- Programmable DNA/Polyacrylamide Network-Grafted Broadband Plasmonic Liquid Metal Nanoparticles for Ultrafast Real-Time Molecular Diagnostics.Small (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany) · 2026Article
- Article
- Utilizing RT-PCR for infectious disease diagnosis with emphasis on non-tuberculous mycobacteria in Bangladesh, 2019-2024.BMC infectious diseases · 2026Article
- Integrating HTS and CRISPR/Cas for next-generation nucleic and non-nucleic acid diagnostics.Molecular genetics and genomics : MGG · 2026Review
- Towards deployable CRISPR-based nucleic acid detection.Progress in biomedical engineering (Bristol, England) · 2026Review
- In Silico Design and Computational Characterization of Novel Chimeric Multiepitope Antigens for Mpox Serosurveillance: An Immunoinformatics Approach.Health science reports · 2026Article
368 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Molecular diagnostics are revolutionising the clinical practice of infectious disease. Their effects will be significant in acute-care settings where timely and accurate diagnostic tools are critical for patient treatment decisions and outcomes. PCR is the most well-developed molecular technique up to now, and has a wide range of already fulfilled, and potential, clinical applications, including specific or broad-spectrum pathogen detection, evaluation of emerging novel infections, surveillance, early detection of biothreat agents, and antimicrobial resistance profiling. PCR-based methods may also be cost effective relative to traditional testing procedures. Further advancement of technology is needed to improve automation, optimise detection sensitivity and specificity, and expand the capacity to detect multiple targets simultaneously (multiplexing). This review provides an up-to-date look at the general principles, diagnostic value, and limitations of the most current PCR-based platforms as they evolve from bench to bedside.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.