The following is a summary of “Diagnostic performance of metagenomic next-generation sequencing for Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia,” published in the July 2023 issue of Infectious Disease by Li et al.
Researchers performed a retrospective study on pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia (PJP), a life-threatening opportunistic infection assessed for diagnostic accuracy using metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS).
A digital literature search was conducted on the Web of Knowledge, PubMed, Cochrane Library, CNKI, and Wanfang data. Through bivariate analysis, computed meta sensitivity, selectivity, diagnostic odds ratio (DOR), the area under the summary receiver operator characteristic (SROC) curve, and the Q-point value (Q*) was done.
The results revealed 9 studies comprising 1,343 patients, 418 diagnosed with PJP, and 925 serving as controls. The sensitivity of mNGS for diagnosing PJP was 0.974 (95% CI, 0.953–0.987), and its specificity was 0.943 (95% CI, 0.926–0.957). The DOR was at 431.58 (95% CI, 186.77–997.27), observed an area of 0.987 under the SROC curve, and Q* measured 0.951. No heterogeneity was found in the I2 test, and no potential publication bias was observed in the Deek funnel test. The mNGS had an SROC curve area of 0.9852 in immunocompromised patients and 0.979 in non-HIV patients.
They concluded mNGS shows excellent accuracy for diagnosing PJP in immunocompromised and non-HIV patients, making it a promising tool.
Source: bmcinfectdis.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12879-023-08440-4
