The combined RT-PCR and qPCR technique has been described as quantitative RT-PCR or real-time RT-PCR (sometimes even called quantitative real-time RT-PCR),  has been variously abbreviated as qRT-PCR, RT-qPCR, RRT-PCR, and rRT-PCR. In order to avoid confusion, the following abbreviations will be used consistently throughout this article:
Not all authors, especially earlier ones, use this convention and the reader should be cautious when following links.  RT-PCR has been used to indicate both real-time PCR (qPCR) and reverse transcription PCR (RT-PCR).