Liu Harry Y, Hopping Grant C, Vaidyanathan Uma, Ronquillo Yasmyne C, Hoopes Phillip C, Moshirfar Majid
Health Science Center, McGovern Medical School, University of Texas, Houston, TX, USA.
John A. Moran Eye Center, Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, School of Medicine, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA.
Med Hypothesis Discov Innov Ophthalmol. 2019 Fall;8(3):152-155.
PCR involves a repeating cycle of replication to amplify small segments of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). A novel application of this technique is microbial identification in infectious keratitis, one of the leading causes of blindness in the world. PCR is more sensitive than biological stains and culture, which are considered the current gold standards for diagnosing infectious keratitis. The diagnosis and treatment of infectious keratitis cost the United States millions of dollars in health expenditure. PCR may help offset that cost by allowing for individualized disease management and screening for multiple antibiotic-resistant genes. While beneficial, PCR demonstrates lower specificity rates compared to culture and stain, indicating its shortcomings; this can be overcome by performing PCR after narrowing the pool of potential microorganisms. This article examines the clinical utility of PCR in cases of infectious keratitis by evaluating its reliability, validity, associated costs, and indications.
聚合酶链反应（PCR）涉及一个重复的复制循环，以扩增脱氧核糖核酸（DNA）的小片段。这项技术的一种新应用是在感染性角膜炎中进行微生物鉴定，感染性角膜炎是全球主要的致盲原因之一。PCR比生物染色和培养更敏感，而生物染色和培养被认为是目前诊断感染性角膜炎的金标准。感染性角膜炎的诊断和治疗在美国的医疗支出中花费了数百万美元。PCR通过实现个体化疾病管理和筛查多种耐抗生素基因，可能有助于抵消这笔费用。虽然有益，但与培养和染色相比，PCR的特异性率较低，表明了其缺点；通过在缩小潜在微生物范围后进行PCR可以克服这一问题。本文通过评估PCR在感染性角膜炎病例中的可靠性、有效性、相关成本和适应症，探讨其临床实用性。
