Evaluation of the Propidium Monoazide-quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction Method for the Detection of Viable Enterococcus faecalis.

Introduction: One limitation of DNA-based molecular assays is their inability to distinguish between live and dead cells. A sample treatment with propidium monoazide (PMA) before DNA amplification has been proposed to overcome this problem. The aim of this in vitro study was to test different concentrations of PMA coupled with quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) for the detection of viable Enterococcus faecalis.