When Bacterial Culture Fails, Metagenomics Can Help: A Case of Chronic Hepatic Brucelloma Assessed by Next-Generation Sequencing

Front Microbiol. 2018 Jul 17:9:1566. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2018.01566. eCollection 2018.

Abstract

Here, we sequenced DNA extracted from a necrotic hepatic lesion from a patient with suspected chronic hepatic brucelloma but negative culture results. Although most of the taxonomically classified sequencing reads corresponded to human genome sequences, our data suggest that whole-metagenome shotgun sequencing may be used together with other tests to strengthen the diagnosis of hepatic brucelloma.

Keywords: Brucella; clinical metagenomics; liver abscess; molecular diagnosis of infectious diseases; next-generation sequencing.