Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40181443›Full record

ArticleJournal of translational medicine2025

Impact of metagenomics next-generation sequencing on etiological diagnosis and early outcomes in sepsis.

Feixiang Xu, Chen Chen, Su Lu, Mingming Xue, Hailin Ding, Yanli Song, Yun Zhang, Keyu Sun, Lunxian Tang, Wei Wang and 25 more

Abstract readMulticenter Study
In one paragraph

Article in Journal of translational medicine, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
12citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

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.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

12 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Review
  2. Review
  3. Review
  4. Article
  5. Article
  6. Review
  7. Recent advances in early screening and diagnosis of sepsis: a narrative review.Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2026
    Review
  8. Article
  9. Article
  10. Article
  11. Tri-layer microbiology for LMIC Hospitals: linking syndromic panels with reflex culture and targeted sequencing for real world care - a narrative review.The Brazilian journal of infectious diseases : an official publication of the Brazilian Society of Infectious Diseases
    Review
  12. Stewardship of Molecular Diagnostics in Transplant Viral Infections.Transplant infectious disease : an official journal of the Transplantation Society
    Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

35 authors.

Feixiang Xu *Department of Emergency, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, 180 Fenglin Road, Xuhui District, Shanghai, 200032, China.
Chen Chen *Department of Emergency, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, 180 Fenglin Road, Xuhui District, Shanghai, 200032, China.
Su Lu *Department of Emergency, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, 180 Fenglin Road, Xuhui District, Shanghai, 200032, China.
Mingming Xue *Department of Emergency, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, 180 Fenglin Road, Xuhui District, Shanghai, 200032, China.
Hailin Ding *Department of Emergency, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, 180 Fenglin Road, Xuhui District, Shanghai, 200032, China.
Yanli Song *Department of Emergency Internal Medicine, Tongji Hospital, Tongji University, Shanghai, China.
Yun Zhang *Department of Emergency Medicine, Wuxi People's Hospital Affiliated to Nanjing Medical University, Wuxi, Jiangsu, China.
Keyu Sun *Department of Emergency, Minhang Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
Lunxian TangDepartment of Emergency Medicine and Critical Care, East Hospital, Tongji University, Shanghai, China.
Wei WangDepartment of Emergency, Shanghai Xuhui Central Hospital, Shanghai, China.
Meitang WangEmergency Department, Changhai Hospital, Navy Medical University, Shanghai, China.
Yan TangDepartment of Emergency, Qingpu Branch of Zhongshan Hospital Affiliated to Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
Dingyu TanDepartment of Emergency, Northern Jiangsu People's Hospital, Yangzhou University, Jiangsu, China.
Chenling YaoDepartment of Emergency, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, 180 Fenglin Road, Xuhui District, Shanghai, 200032, China.
Dongwei ShiDepartment of Emergency, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, 180 Fenglin Road, Xuhui District, Shanghai, 200032, China.
Enqiang MaoDepartment of Emergency, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
Mian ShaoDepartment of Emergency, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, 180 Fenglin Road, Xuhui District, Shanghai, 200032, China.
Youguo YingEmergency Department, Shanghai Ninth People's Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
Chunmei ZhouDepartment of Clinical Microbiology Laboratory, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
Lihong HuangDepartment of Biostatistics, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
Hu PengDepartment of Emergency, Shanghai Tenth People's Hospital, Tongji University, Shanghai, China.
Zhongshu KuangDepartment of Emergency, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, 180 Fenglin Road, Xuhui District, Shanghai, 200032, China.
Sanqiang WangDepartment of Emergency, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, 180 Fenglin Road, Xuhui District, Shanghai, 200032, China.
Qingbian MaEmergency Department, Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing, China.
Si SunDepartment of Emergency, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, 180 Fenglin Road, Xuhui District, Shanghai, 200032, China.
Dongfeng GuoDepartment of Emergency Medicine, Gongli Hospital, Shanghai, China.
Tianwen GuDepartment of Emergency, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, 180 Fenglin Road, Xuhui District, Shanghai, 200032, China.
Bin YangVision Medicals Center for Infectious Diseases, Guangzhou, China.
Linhao MaDepartment of Emergency and Critical Care Medicine, Shanghai Changzheng Hospital, Naval Medical University, 415 Fengyang Road, Huangpu District, Shanghai, 200003, China. macro118@139.com.
Chengjin GaoDepartment of Emergency, Xinhua Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, 1665 Kongjiang Road, Yangpu District, Shanghai, 200092, China. gaochengjin@xinhuamed.com.cn.
Xiaoye LuDepartment of Emergency, Renji Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, 160 Pujian Road, Pudong District, Shanghai, 200127, China. luxiaoye@renji.com.
Hong ZhangDepartment of Emergency Medicine, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, 218 Jixi Road, Shushan District, Hefei, Anhui Province, 230032, China. zhanghong20070703@163.com.
Ruilan WangDepartment of Emergency and Critical Care Medicine, Shanghai General Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, 100 Haining Road, Hongkou District, Shanghai, 200080, China. wangyusun@hotmail.com.
Chaoyang TongDepartment of Emergency, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, 180 Fenglin Road, Xuhui District, Shanghai, 200032, China. tong.chaoyang@zs-hospital.sh.cn.
Zhenju SongDepartment of Emergency, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, 180 Fenglin Road, Xuhui District, Shanghai, 200032, China. song.zhenju@zs-hospital.sh.cn.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3068-4795

Funding

Key Technologies Research and Development Program 2021YFC2501800Key Technologies Research and Development Program 2023YFC0872500Key Technologies Research and Development Program 2023YFC3043507National Natural Science Foundation of China 82072214Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality 21MC1930400Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality 23Y31900100Shanghai Pudong New Area Health Commission PWYts2021-17
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundClinical implications of metagenomics next-generation sequencing (mNGS) in sepsis have not been fully evaluated. This study aimed to determine the diagnostic, therapeutic, and prognostic impacts of mNGS in sepsis.

methodsThis multicenter prospective study was conducted at 19 sites in China from 2020 to 2021, and 859 adult patients hospitalized with sepsis were enrolled. The advantages, challenges, knowledge gaps and privacy risks of mNGS were carefully introduced to all participants, and participants chose on their own to either receive conventional microbiological test (CMT) alone (conventional-test-only group, n = 394) or receive mNGS test along with CMT (combined test group, n = 465). For prognostic analysis, the primary endpoint was 28-day mortality. Secondary endpoints included 7-day mortality and average per-day hospital cost. Inverse probability of treatment weighting was used to balance covariates between groups. Concurrent CMT and mNGS results from patients in the combined test group were used for diagnostic analyses. Therapeutic impact of mNGS was evaluated based on subsequent antibiotic adjustment.

resultsCompared with composite reference standard, the positive percent agreement of mNGS among infected site samples was significantly higher than that of CMT (92.0% [95% CI, 88.7 to 94.5] vs. 51.1% [95% CI, 45.9 to 56.2], p < 0.001), while the negative percent agreement of mNGS was inferior to that of CMT (39.6% [95% CI, 29.5 to 50.4] vs. 69.2% [95% CI, 58.7 to 78.5], p < 0.001). The mNGS test identified causal microbes in 344 (74.0%) patients, and concomitant antibiotic changes occurred in 136 patients (29.2%). Death by day 7 occurred in 24 of 465 (5.2%) patients in the combined test group and in 34 of 394 (8.6%) patients in the conventional-test-only group (hazard ratio, 0.44 [95% CI, 0.26 to 0.77], p = 0.004). However, no significant difference in 28-day mortality was observed between two study groups (hazard ratio, 0.82 [0.56 to 1.20], p = 0.300).

conclusionsThe mNGS test of infected site samples exhibited 40% higher pathogen detection rate than CMT in patients with sepsis, which led to improved etiological diagnosis and tailored antibiotic therapy. Additional use of mNGS halved the risk of early death in 7 days, but did not improve 28-day survival in patients with sepsis.

trial registrationchictr.org.cn Identifier: ChiCTR2000031113. Registered 22 March 2020.

Indexed as

High-Throughput Nucleotide SequencingMetagenomicsSepsisAdultAgedFemaleHumansMaleMiddle AgedPrognosisProspective StudiesTreatment Outcome28-day mortalityAntibioticsConventional microbiological testEtiological diagnosisInverse probability treatment weightingMetagenomics next-generation sequencingSepsis

Identifiers

PMID40181443
PMCPMC11969879

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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.