Clinical Diagnosis Application of Metagenomic Next-Generation Sequencing of Plasma in Suspected Sepsis

PURPOSE: We analyzed the clinical concordance of mNGS test results from blood samples and improved the clinical efficiency of mNGS in the diagnosis of suspected sepsis pathogens. PATIENTS AND METHODS: In this study, 99 samples of suspected blood flow infection were included for plasma mNGS, and the correlation between mNGS results and blood culture results, serum inflammatory indices, clinical symptoms and antibiotic treatment was analyzed, as well as the comparison with the detection rate of BALF pathogens, as well as the classification of different pathogens in the mNGS results were analyzed. RESULTS: The mNGS pathogen detection rate was higher than that of traditional blood culture (83.02% vs 35.82%). The rate of the mNGS results being consistent with the clinical diagnosis was also higher than that of traditional blood culture (58.49% vs 20.75%). This study shows that bacteria and fungi are the main pathogens in sepsis, and viral sepsis is very rare. In this study, 32% of sepsis patients were secondary to pneumonia. Compared with the pathogen detection rate using alveolar lavage fluid, the detection rate from plasma mNGS was 62.5%. Samples were also easy to sample, noninvasive, and more convenient for clinical application. CONCLUSION: This study shows that compared with blood culture, the detection rate of mNGS pathogen that meets the diagnosis of sepsis is higher. We need a combination of multiple indicators to monitor the early diagnosis and treatment of sepsis.