Diagnosis of viral and bacterial diseases

The potential contributions of techniques, such as restriction enzyme analysis, nucleic acid detection, the polymerase chain reaction and competitive inhibitive tests, are only beginning to be defined. The extraordinary promise of these procedures has yet to be fully realized. However, before these techniques are accepted and widely used, they should be shown to have sensitivity and specificity comparable to those of current tests. Finally, they should be safe, easy to conduct and automated to facilitate the study of large numbers of specimens.