Application Value of BALF mNGS for Screening Patients With Mycobacterium Tuberculosis Infection in General Hospitals

Abstract BackgroundTo evaluate the diagnostic value of metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) in patients with Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection.MethodsPatients hospitalized for pneumonia in the Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine of Wuhan Central Hospital from January to June 2021 were enrolled in the study. Patients were examined by mNGS and divided into two groups according to the M. tuberculosis infection. We compared the clinical indicators of infected patients of both groups. All patients in the M. tuberculosis infection group underwent bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL). Different detection methods were used to detect pathogenic bacteria. ResultsA total of 111 patients agreed to undergo mNGS. Of these, 15 were eventually enrolled in the study group. We found that patients with decreased white blood cells had a higher risk of infection with M. tuberculosis than those infected with other pathogens (OR=0.807, 95%CI: 0.672–0.969, P=0.022). We also found that mNGS had a higher positive rate of M. tuberculosis infection detection than traditional detection methods. The positive detection rates of TB-DNA-PCR, Xpert MTB, and T-SPOT. TB were 69.23%, 83.33%, 77.77%, respectively.ConclusionsBALF mNGS assay could quickly and effectively detect M. tuberculosis complex in patients with pulmonary infection in a general hospital setting.