Basic Competence for Etiological Diagnosis of Lower Respiratory Tract Infection after Application of Metagenomic Next-Generation Sequencing

In addition to clinical manifestations, medical history, and imaging, the diagnosis of low respiratory tract infection (LRTI) depends mainly on the ability of the clinical microbiology laboratory to detect the pathogens. However, conventional culture may be time-consuming, the sensitivity of microscopy is low, and nucleic acid-based targeted tests (e.g., PCR) could only cover limited range of pathogens. The use of mNGS technology has improved the diagnostic rate of LRTI, but the conventional microbiology detection has been neglected to some extent. This review addressed the appropriate use of these methods with the aim of strengthening the ability of traditional microbiology methods in LRTI diagnosis after mNGS application.