In the present study, blood culture technique was used to isolate and identify bacteria in ascitic fluid in 50 patients with liver cirrhosis and ascites. PCR was also performed to detect bacterial DNA (bactDNA) simultaneously in ascitic fluid and in serum, which was considered as a molecular evidence of bacterial translocation. Using blood culture technique, bacteria were isolated from 9 out of 50 (18%) ascitic fluid specimens, out of them, six (66.7%) Gram positive bacteria and three (33.3%) Gram negative bacteria were isolated. BactDNA was detected in 38% of ascitic fluid samples and in 34% of serum samples. Ascitic fluid infection was detected in 20 patients who had significantly higher AST. Ascitic fluid culture could detect 9 out of 20 patient with bacterial translocation (45%), PCR for ascitic fluid could detect 19 out of 20 (95%), while PCR for serum could detect 17 out of 20 (85%). PCR had higher sensitivity and specificity (89.5% and 100%, respectively) than cultivation of ascitic fluid using blood culture technique (42.1% and 96.8%, respectively).