ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Cell. Infect. Microbiol.
Sec. Clinical Microbiology
Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2025.1570776
This article is part of the Research TopicPathogenic Mechanisms and New Technology-Based Diagnostics for Bacterial InfectionsView all 8 articles
Pathogen Detection and Antibiotic Use in Granulomatous Lobular Mastitis: A Comparison of mNGS and Culture
Provisionally accepted
旭 穆1*
Hongmin Luo,1Hanhua Li1Shenghua Chen1Yuyang Han,1Lin Zhang1Wei Liu2Weilong Qiao3Shaoyi Zheng1Zhifeng Huang1- 1Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital, Guangzhou, China
- 2Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China
- 3First People's Hospital of Kashi, Kashi, Xinjiang, China
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This study aimed to evaluate the clinical microbial profile of patients with granulomatous lobular mastitis (GLM) and compare various detection methods to identify the most effective approach for pathogen detection, which could help enhance clinical diagnosis and treatment.We retrospectively analyzed data from 84 patients diagnosed with GLM, assessed the composition of pathogenic microorganisms in these patients, and compared the effectiveness of different sampling methods and detection techniques.Corynebacterium kroppenstedtii (C. kroppenstedtii) was identified as the predominant microorganism among G LM patients. The positivity rate was low in skin swabs (10%) but similar in pus (40%) and tissue samples (37%).After antibiotic treatment, the pathogen detection rate of metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) (54.5 5%) was found to be higher than that of culture-based methods (27.27%). Among the GLM cases with pathogeni c infection, although mNGS demonstrated higher sensitivity (75.0%) than culture tests (50.0%), both methods exhi bited 100.0% specificity. However, the time for obtaining results with mNGS was significantly shorter (1.2 ± 0.41 days) compared to bacterial culture (5.5 ± 0.64 days) (P < 0.05).Our findings indicate that pus was the most suitable sample type for microbial evidence collection in patients with GLM. mNGS demonstrated superior performance compared to culture in distinguishing infectious from non-i nfectious cases, with reduced antibiotic interference, faster turnaround time, and higher accuracy. Based on our sin gle-center experience, empirical cephalosporin treatment may be appropriate for these patients. Additionally, surgica l intervention remains the most efficient approach for rapid and complete resolution.
Keywords: Granulomatous lobular mastitis, pathogens, Next-generation sequencing, Microbial culture, sampling methods, Diag nostic value
Received: 04 Feb 2025; Accepted: 21 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 穆, Luo,, Li, Chen, Han,, Zhang, Liu, Qiao, Zheng and Huang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: 旭 穆, Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital, Guangzhou, China
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