Diagnostic Performance of Metagenomic Next⁃Generation Sequencing in the Diagnosis of Prosthetic Joint Infection Using Tissue Specimens

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the ability of metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) diagnosing prosthetic joint infection (PJI) using tissue from hip/knee rapidly and precisely, especially in patients who had received antibiotic treatment within the preceding two weeks. METHODS: From May 2020 to March 2022, 52 cases with suspected PJI were enrolled. mNGS was performed on surgical tissue samples. The sensitivity and specificity of mNGS in diagnosis was evaluated using culture in conjunction with MSIS criteria. This study also looked at how antibiotic use affected culture and mNGS efficacy. RESULTS: According to MSIS criteria, 31 of the 44 cases had PJI, and 13 were classified in the aseptic loosening group. Sensitivity, specificity, positive/negative predictive value (PPV/NPV), positive/negative likelihood ratio (PLR/NLR), and area under the curve (AUC) of mNGS assay were 80.6% (71.9–91.8%), 84.6 (73.7–97.9%), 92.6 (84.2–98.7%), 64.7 (58.6–74.7%), 5.241 (4.081–6.693), 0.229 (0.108–0.482) and 0.826 (0.786–0.967), respectively, with MSIS as a reference. When MSIS was used as a reference, the results of culture assay were 45.2% (40.8–51.5%), 100 (100.0–100.0%), 100 (100.0–100.0%), 43.3 (39.1–49.5%), +∞, 0.548 (0.396–0.617) and 0.726 (0.621–0.864), respectively. The AUC values for mNGS and culture were 0.826 and 0.731, respectively, and the differences were insignificant. mNGS demonstrated higher sensitivity than culture in PJI subjects who had previously received antibiotic treatment within 2 weeks (69.5% vs 23.1%, P = 0.03). CONCLUSION: In our series, mNGS yield a higher sensitivity for diagnosis and pathogen detection of PJI compared to microbiological culture. Additionally, mNGS is less affected by prior antibiotic exposure.