{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,21]],"date-time":"2026-01-21T13:36:02Z","timestamp":1769002562452,"version":"3.49.0"},"reference-count":25,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,20]],"date-time":"2026-01-20T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1768867200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"the Ministry of Health and Welfare of Taiwan","award":["M09A7321"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["M09A7321"]}]},{"name":"the Ministry of Health and Welfare of Taiwan","award":["MOHW113-TDU-B-211-114006"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["MOHW113-TDU-B-211-114006"]}]},{"name":"the National Science and Technology Council of Taiwan","award":["NSTC 113-2321-B-002-016"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["NSTC 113-2321-B-002-016"]}]},{"name":"Asia Pathogenomics Co."}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Microorganisms"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Identifying pathogens causing periprosthetic joint infection (PJI) is a challenge for clinicians. We aimed to evaluate the application of metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) to identify pathogens in PJI. A prospective analysis was conducted of patients diagnosed PJI between 2022 and 2024 at twelve hospitals in Taiwan. Both conventional bacterial culture (CMT) and mNGS of joint fluid and debrided tissue were performed. Demographic characteristics, laboratory results and clinical outcomes were collected. The diagnostic performance of these two methods was analyzed. A total of 42 patients with a mean age of 67.9 years were enrolled in analysis. The knee was the most common joint involved (69.1%). A high proportion of patients (78.6%) received prior antibiotics within the two weeks at sample collection. mNGS identified pathogens in 28 out of 42 patients (66.7%), whereas CMT yielded positive results in 12 out of 42 patients (28.6%) (McNemar\u2019s test, p = 0.01). Staphylococcus species was the most common genus detected (n = 11), followed by Cutibacterium (n = 4). Other detected genera included Escherichia, Mycobacterium, Enterobacter, Klebsiella (n = 2 each), Acinetobacter, and Corynebacterium (n = 1 each). Our results support the idea that mNGS could serve as a valuable diagnostic tool for PJI in addition to traditional culture methods.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/microorganisms14010233","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,20]],"date-time":"2026-01-20T08:36:33Z","timestamp":1768898193000},"page":"233","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Comparative Analysis of Microbial Detection in Traditional Culture Versus Metagenomic Next-Generation Sequencing in Patients with Periprosthetic Joint Infection: A Prospective Observational Study"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"14","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8006-4917","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Po-Yu","family":"Liu","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Internal Medicine, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung City 407, Taiwan"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Hung-Jen","family":"Tang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Internal Medicine, Chi-Mei Memorial Hospital, Tainan City 71004, Taiwan"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5162-2414","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Susan Shin-Jung","family":"Lee","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Internal Medicine, Kaoshiung Veterans General Hospital, Kaoshiung 813414, Taiwan"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4099-3487","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Chun-Hsing","family":"Liao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Internal Medicine, Far-East Memorial Hospital, New Taipei City 220, Taiwan"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Chien-Hsien","family":"Huang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital Hsin-Chu Branch, Hsin-Chu City 300, Taiwan"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Han-Yueh","family":"Kuo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital Hsin-Chu Branch, Hsin-Chu City 300, Taiwan"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Wang-Huei","family":"Sheng","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital Hsin-Chu Branch, Hsin-Chu City 300, Taiwan"},{"name":"School of Medicine, National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei City 10051, Taiwan"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"name":"Taiwan Metagenomic Sequencing Microbiology Study Group","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,20]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"302","DOI":"10.1128\/CMR.00111-13","article-title":"Prosthetic Joint Infection","volume":"27","author":"Tande","year":"2014","journal-title":"Clin. 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