ArticleEuropean spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society2023
Diagnostic performance of metagenomic next-generation sequencing and conventional microbial culture for spinal infection: a retrospective comparative study.
Article in European spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Comparative diagnostic performance of metagenomic next-generation sequencing and conventional microbial culture in spinal infections: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2026Pooled it
- Metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) versus tissue culture technique (TCT) in diagnosis of spinal infection: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Scientific reports · 2025Pooled it
- Clinical utility of metagenomic next-generation sequencing in diagnosing spinal infections: a systematic review and meta-analysis.European spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society · 2026Review
- Review
- Anterior debridement, reconstruction, and fusion for cervical brucellosis spondylitis with epidural abscess: a single-center experience of 30 patients.European spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society · 2025Article
- Exploring vaginal microbiome: from traditional methods to metagenomic next-generation sequencing-a systematic review.Frontiers in microbiology · 2025Review
- The clinical management and efficacy of metagenomic next-generation sequencing in patients with pyogenic spinal infection: a single-center cohort study.Journal of orthopaedic surgery and research · 2024Article
- Metagenomic next-generation sequencing for the clinical identification of spinal infection-associated pathogens.Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2024Article
- Research progress of metagenomic next-generation sequencing in infectious diseases of the spine: a systematic review.Therapeutic advances in infectious diseaseReview
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
Abstract
purposeThe study evaluated the diagnostic performance of metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) as a diagnostic test for biopsy samples from patients with suspected spinal infection (SI) and compared the diagnostic performance of mNGS with that of microbial culture.
methodsAll patients diagnosed with clinical suspicion of SI were enrolled, and data were collected through a retrospective chart review of patient records. Biopsy specimens obtained from each patient were tested via mNGS and microbial culture. Samples were enriched for microbial DNA using the universal DNA extraction kit, whole-genome amplified, and sequenced using MGISEQ-200 instrument. After Low-quality reads removed, the remaining sequences for microbial content were analyzed and aligned using SNAP and kraken2 tools.
resultsA total of 39 patients (19 men and 20 women) were deemed suitable for enrollment. The detection rate for pathogens of mNGS was 71.8% (28/39), which was significantly higher than that of microbial culture (23.1%, p = 0.016). Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex was the most frequently isolated. Using pathologic test as the standard reference for SI, thirty-one cases were classified as infected, and eight cases were considered aseptic. The sensitivity and specificity values for detecting pathogens with mNGS were 87.1% and 87.5%, while these rates were 25.8% and 87.5% with conventional culture. mNGS was able to detect 88.9% (8/9) of pathogens identified by conventional culture, with a genus-level sensitivity of 100% (8/8) and a species-level sensitivity of 87.5% (7/8).
conclusionThe present work suggests that mNGS might be superior to microbial culture for detecting SI pathogens.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.