Clinical Applications of PCR (Methods in Molecular Medicine)

An unprecedented collection of core PCR techniques useful for the study and diagnosis of human diseases. Cutting-edge and essential for today's diagnostic laboratories, these techniques heavily utilize nonisotopic, solution phase, and in situ amplification methods. A significant number of chapters describe applications exploiting the exquisite sensitivity of PCR in the detection of rare or single cells, as in identifying fetal cells circulating in maternal blood, preimplantation embryo diagnosis, or detecting circulating cancer cells. The book demonstrates over and over again the power of PCR-its high sensitivity, specificity, and ability to rapidly discriminate sequence variations.