Procedure Principles

Amplified Nucleic Acid Tests

Amplification Method

Amplifies

Use of Thermal Cycling (Thermocycling)
Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) Target amplification using DNA polymerase

Yes
Ligase Chain Reaction (LCR) Target amplification using DNA ligase Yes
Transcription- based or Transcription-mediated amplification(TMA)

Target amplification using reverse transcriptase and RNA polymerase

 No
Strand Displacement (SDA) Target amplification using DNA polymerase that continuously displaces strands of DNA containing the target sequence
No
Branched DNA (bDNA) Signal amplification using alkaline phosphatase No
Loop Mediated (LAMP)

Target amplification of multiple DNA sequences in a loop pattern using DNA polymerase

 No
Nucleic acid sequence based (NASBA) Target amplification using 3 enzymes No
Q-beta Replicase

Probe amplification- The concentration of an RNA probe increases if the target is present

 No

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