Next-Generation Sequencing Diagnostics of Sepsis

Next-Generation Sequencing Diagnostics of Sepsis

Culture-based diagnostics represent the standard of care in septic patients, but are highly insensitive and in many cases unspecific. We could previously demonstrate the proof of concept for the identification of infecting agents by sequencing circulating cell-free DNA from plasma and applying a quantitative sepsis indicating score, which we further evaluated and benchmarked against blood culture in a larger trial with 48 patients and 256 samples. We could show a six-fold increased positivity with this molecular test over blood culture and could simultaneously identify bacteria, fungi and viruses. An expert evaluation to assess the clinical relevance of the NGS findings by an independent panel of clinicians showed a plausibility of 96% of positive NGS results. Sequencing based diagnostics thus provides an open diagnostic platform for the identification of clinically relevant pathogens with higher sensitivity and specificity than BC and is a promising approach for future diagnostics of infectious diseases.