Clinical Utility of Metagenomic Next-Generation Sequencing in Adult Patients with Fever of Unknown Origin: A Retrospective Real-World Study

Background: Fever of unknown origin (FUO) remains a major diagnostic challenge due to its heterogeneous etiologies and nonspecific clinical manifestations. Although metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) represents a promising diagnostic tool, its clinical utility in adult patients with FUO remains incompletely characterized. Methods: In this study, we retrospectively analyzed adult FUO patients who underwent mNGS testing at Peking Union Medical College Hospital between March 2022 and April 2024. Clinically meaningful diagnostic contribution was determined according to the final clinical diagnosis following multidisciplinary adjudication. Diagnostic performance, pathogen spectrum, therapeutic impact, specimen type, and predictors of clinically meaningful mNGS results were evaluated. Results: A total of 127 FUO patients were included in the study. Infectious diseases accounted for 53.5% of final diagnoses, followed by noninfectious inflammatory diseases (11.0%), malignancies (10.2%), and undiagnosed conditions (19.7%). mNGS made a clinically meaningful diagnostic contribution in 31.5% (40/127) of patients, despite an overall positivity rate of 56.7% (72/127), and showed a higher sensitivity than conventional culture for infectious etiologies (69.1% vs. 16.9%), though with a lower specificity (57.6% vs. 96.0%). Diagnostic contribution varied significantly by specimen type, with drainage fluid/abscess samples showing the highest diagnostic yield (90.9%). Lower white blood cell count was independently associated with clinically meaningful mNGS results (OR 0.87, 95% CI 0.77–0.98). Conclusions: mNGS provides clinically meaningful diagnostic value in adult patients with FUO, particularly for identifying occult infectious etiologies. Lesion-directed sampling, whenever feasible, and careful interpretation of sequencing results in the clinical context are essential to maximize the diagnostic utility of this approach. A lower white blood cell count was independently associated with clinically meaningful mNGS results, although this finding requires validation in larger prospective studies.