The optimal condition of agarose gel electrophoresis to visualize the PCR products obtained from Amplicor CMV PCR test

An Amplicor PCR series (Roche, Branchburg, NJ, USA) was developed to make the PCR technology available in hospital as a routine test, and is prevailing for the diagnosis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Cytomegalovirus (CMV), etc. In these circumstances, we sometimes experience a discrepancy between the result of Amplicor diagnosis and the patients' clinical findings. A method is described here to recheck the Amplicor results by performing agarose gel electrophoresis with the PCR products obtained from Amplicor. Amplicor CMV PCR test was used for this study. When the PCR products were electrophoresed without any purification, bands of amplified CMV DNA were not electrophoresed precisely. On the other hand, when the products were purified by the Qiagen blood kit (Hiden, Germany), the PCR products were electrophoresed properly. We concluded that the best way to recheck the Amplicor results was to run electrophoresis after purification of PCR products.