Objective: To evaluate the diagnostic value of metagenomics next-generation sequencing (mNGS) in detecting pathogens in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) for pulmonary infection in solid organ transplant patients in intensive care unit (ICU).
Methods: A retrospective study was conducted, the BALF samples from 46 patients with post organ transplant pneumonia/suspected pneumonia admitted to the Department of Critical Care Medicine of the First Affiliated Hospital of University of Science and Technology of China from August 2018 to August 2021 were collected, all tested by simultaneous mNGS and conventional comprehensive microbial test (CMT), and the results of CMT were used as the reference standard to compare the differences in the diagnostic value of mNGS and CMT for pulmonary infections in solid organ transplant patients, and to analyze the diagnostic value of mNGS for mixed infections.
Results: (1) Pneumonia pathogens: a total of 31 pathogens were detected in 35 patients, including bacteria (16 species), fungi (9 species) and viruses (6 species). Among them, 25 pathogens were detected by mNGS and CMT, and only 19 pathogens were detected by mNGS. Among the microorganisms isolated by mNGS method, the detection rates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Acinetobacter baumannii and Klebsiella pneumoniae were higher [51.4% (18/35), 42.9% (15/35), 31.4% (11/35), respectively]; Candida albicans, Aspergillus and Pneumocystis carinii were the most commonly detected fungi [31.4% (11/35), 22.9% (8/35), 22.9% (8/35), respectively]; 20 patients were positive for the virus, and the most commonly detected viruses were cytomegalovirus, herpesvirus and EB virus [28.6% (10/35), 20.0% (7/35), 17.1% (6/35), respectively]. In addition, one case of Brucella was detected by mNGS. (2) Diagnostic efficiency: as far as bacterial detection is concerned, 20 cases of negative results were obtained by CMT detection of 35 samples included in the study, and a total of 10 cases of positive results were obtained by mNGS detection of negative samples; the percentage of mNGS positive samples was significantly higher than that of CMT positive samples [odds ratio (OR) = 5.5, 95% confidence interval (95%CI) = 1.2-24.8, P = 0.02]. When compared with CMT, the sensitivity and specificity of mNGS were 93.3% and 50.0%, and the positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV) were 58.3%, 91.1%. As far as fungal detection was concerned, there was no significant difference in the percentage of positive samples between the two methods (OR = 1.5, 95%CI = 0.5-4.2, P = 0.60); the sensitivity and specificity of mNGS were 72.2% and 64.7%, and the PPV and NPV were 68.4%, 68.8%; CMT test of the 35 included samples produced 17 negative results, and mNGS test of the negative samples produced 6 positive results. A total of 20 patients tested positive for the virus by mNGS. In addition, 23 patients (65.7%) were diagnosed with pulmonary mixed infection.
Conclusions: The use of mNGS to detect pathogens in BALF can improve the sensitivity and specificity of bacterial identification of pulmonary infection in critically ill organ transplant patients, and mNGS has obvious advantages in detecting virus and identifying mixed infections.