With increasing numbers of specific antiviral agents available, rapid
diagosis of viral diseases has become increasingly important. The dete
ction of viral antigens directly in specimens and centrifugation-enhan
ced cell culture combined with pre-CPE has dramatically reduced the ti
me required for viral diagnosis. Detection methods based on nucleic ac
id probes and amplification techniques have recently been developed an
d will become more important. In this article, the authors examine the
general methods and some specific applications of rapid methods for v
iral diagnosis currently in use in the clinical virology laboratory.