Detection of potential pathogen in pancreatic fluid aspiration with metagenomic next-generation sequencing in patients with suspected infected pancreatic necrosis

Timely and accurate microbial diagnosis is important in managing patients with infected pancreatic necrosis (IPN).To evaluate the diagnostic performance of Metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) in patients with suspected IPN.The clinical data of 40 patients with suspected IPN who underwent CT-guided pancreatic fluid aspiration were retrospectively analyzed. Microbial culture and mNGS were simultaneously applied to identify the potential pathogens. The diagnostic performance of the mNGS was assessed by sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV).The mNGS report can be obtained significantly earlier than culture methods (42 (36-62 h) vs. 60 (42-124 h), P = 0.032). Across all the study samples, seven species of bacteria and two species of fungi were reported accordingly to the culture results, while 22 species of bacteria and two species of fungi were detected by mNGS. The sensitivity, specificity, NPV, and PPV of mNGS were 88.0%, 100%, 83.33%, and 100%, respectively.The diagnostic accuracy of mNGS in patients with suspected IPN is satisfactory. Moreover, mNGS may broaden the range of identifiable infectious pathogens and provide a more timely diagnosis.