Digital PCR in the Clinical Microbiology Laboratory: Another Tool on the Molecular Horizon

Digital PCR was first described in 1999. Improvements in instrumentation and reagents have increased its routine use in molecular pathology laboratories. For clinical microbiology laboratories, digital PCR applications could cover a broad range of purposes, from absolute pathogen quantification to the detection of rare mutations that confer resistance to antibiotics. In this review, we describe several potential applications of digital PCR in the clinical microbiology laboratory. As this method continues to evolve, digital PCR may become an important tool on the horizon for clinical and molecular microbiology laboratories.