Clinical Application of Metagenomic Next-Generation Sequencing in Sepsis Patients with Early Antibiotic Treatment

Yongru Chen,1 Chongyue Chen,1 Wei Chen,2,3 Wei Gai,4 Yafeng Zheng,4 Yuxin Guo,4 Zhaoning Wang,1 Yongsong Chen,1 Zhiming Cai1,5,6 1The First Affiliated Hospital of Shantou University, Shantou, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Urology, Shenzhen Institute of Translational Medicine, Shenzhen Second People’s Hospital, The First Affiliated Hospital of Shenzhen University, International Cancer Center, Shenzhen University School of Medicine, Shenzhen, People’s Republic of China; 3Guangdong Key Laboratory of Systems Biology and Synthetic Biology for Urogenital Tumors, Shenzhen, People’s Republic of China; 4WillingMed Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd, Beijing, People’s Republic of China; 5BGI Genomics, BGI Shenzhen, Shenzhen, People’s Republic of China; 6Carson International Cancer Center, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Zhiming Cai, Carson International Cancer Center of Shenzhen University, No. 1066, Xueyuan Road, Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86 136 0253 0322, Email [email protected] Yongsong Chen, The First Affiliated Hospital of Shantou University, No. 57, Changping Road, Shantou, Guangdong Province, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86 0754-88905000, Email [email protected]: This study aimed to evaluate the clinical utility of metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) in sepsis patients who received early empirical antibiotic treatment.Patients and Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted on clinical data from sepsis patients diagnosed in the Emergency Intensive Care Unit (EICU) between April 2019 and May 2023. All patients underwent standard conventional microbiological testing. Patients were categorized into either the mNGS group or the control group based on whether they underwent mNGS tests. Baseline variables were matched using propensity scores.Results: Out of 461 sepsis patients screened, 130 were included after propensity matching, with 65 patients in each group. Despite prior antibiotic treatment, 57 cases (87.69%) in the mNGS group had positive mNGS results, exceeding the culture detection rate (52.31%). Besides, a higher proportion of patients in the mNGS group experienced antibiotic adjustments compared to the control group (72.31% vs 53.85%). Mortality rates were also compared based on the duration of antibiotic exposure before mNGS sampling. Patients exposed to antibiotics for less than 24 hours had a lower mortality rate compared to those exposed for over 8 days (22.22% vs 42.86%). COX multivariate analysis identified mNGS testing, underlying diseases, lymphocyte percentage, infection site (respiratory and bloodstream) as independent risk factors for mortality in sepsis patients.Conclusion: With increased antibiotic exposure time, the positive rate of culture testing significantly decreased (44.44% vs 59.52% vs 35.71%, P = 0.031), whereas the positive rate of mNGS remained stable (77.78% vs 88.10% vs 92.86%, P = 0.557). mNGS demonstrated less susceptibility to antibiotic exposure. Early mNGS detection positively impacted the prognosis of sepsis patients.Keywords: metagenomic next-generation sequencing, sepsis, antibiotic management, clinical value, prognosis