The term “digital PCR” was first used in the 1999 paper by Kinzler
and Vogelstein [1] in which they described the quantitation of ras
mutations in a sample by partitioning the sample in order to perform
a series of PCRs in 384 well microplates. The term “digital PCR”
was very apposite as it captured both the nature of the reaction and
the spirit of the times and it immediately became established. However
the method that they described was not new as it had been
used over the previous decade under the terms “single molecule
PCR” or “limiting dilution PCR”. They referenced single molecule
PCR but not quantitation by limiting dilution PCR.