RESUMO
PURPOSE: In this pilot study, we used shotgun metagenome sequencing (SMS) strategy on bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) samples from hospitalized patients with suspected ventilate-associated pneumonia (VAP) in order to explore its potential for improving detection of ventilator-associated-pneumonia (VAP) etiology. METHODOLOGY: In total, 67BAL samples from patients with VAP were tested with SMS strategy for detection of respiratory pathogens. Results of SMS and routine respiratory culture were compared. RESULTS: SMS detected all pathogens recovered by cultivation approaches. In addition, putative pathogens other than the organisms recovered by culture were detected by SMS in culture-positive samples. In 40 of 45 (89 â%) culture-negative samples, a potential pathogen was detected by SMS. CONCLUSION: This proof-of-concept study demonstrates that SMS is able to detect bacterial, fungal and viral organisms in BAL, including culture-negative cases.
