Abstract
Objective: To evaluate the diagnostic value of targeted next-generation sequencing (tNGS) of throat swab samples for detecting community-acquired respiratory viruses (CARV) in patients with hematological diseases. Methods: Clinical and laboratory data from 64 episodes involving patients with hematological diseases and suspected infections-who underwent both pharyngeal swab tNGS and CARV polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing concurrently-were retrospectively analyzed. The cases were drawn from the Department of Hematology, Peking University People's Hospital, between September 2023 and April 2024. Concordance between tNGS and CARV PCR results, as well as the diagnostic performance of tNGS in detecting CARV, were evaluated. Results: Among the 64 episodes, 29 were clinically diagnosed with respiratory tract infections, including one case of cytomegalovirus pneumonia and 28 CARV-positive cases. The remaining 35 episodes involved patients with fever or respiratory symptoms attributed to other causes, including 14 with extrapulmonary infections and 21 with noninfectious etiologies. The median follow-up duration was 215.5 days (range: 7-271 days). PCR detected 24 strains of seven CARV types, whereas tNGS detected 25 strains of eight CARV types. Using PCR results as the reference standard, the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and accuracy of tNGS were 85.0%, 88.6%, 77.3%, 92.9%, and 87.5%, respectively. The two methods showed good concordance (Kappa=0.717, P<0.001) . Conclusion: Pharyngeal swab tNGS may serve as a viable alternative to PCR for diagnosing CARV infections in patients with hematological diseases.