ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Cell. Infect. Microbiol.
Sec. Clinical Microbiology
Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2025.1610445
This article is part of the Research TopicAdvancements in Sepsis Diagnosis Utilizing Next-Generation Sequencing Approaches for Personalized MedicineView all 12 articles
Comparative Performance Evaluation of FilmArray RP 2.1 and Targeted Next-Generation Sequencing In Upper Respiratory Tract Infections
Provisionally accepted
Wenxiang Jin1
Zehan Dai2Pengyuan Zhu2Oliver Ma3Jiahao Li1Ava Kong3Junb In Wu1Feifei Liu1Miaozhi Li1Zixin Du1Dan Xue1Ganqiang Yang3Nafen Ye1Zhenliang Luo3Chaohui Hu2
Lei Zhang1*- 1Guangzhou Kingmed Diagnostics Group Co., Ltd., Guangzhou, China
- 2Guangzhou KingCreate Biotechnology Co.,Ltd, Guangzhou, China
- 3KingMed Diagnostics, Science Park, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China, Hong Kong, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs) represent a significant global health burden, impacting patient morbidity and quality of life. The implementation of accurate pathogen detection methods is crucial for precise diagnosis and effective clinical management of URTIs. This study evaluates the clinical performance of targeted next-generation sequencing (tNGS) as a diagnostic tool for comprehensive identification of URTI-associated pathogens.A total of 190 nasopharyngeal swab specimens from patients were enrolled for the study. These specimens underwent pathogen identification using both tNGS and the FilmArray respiratory panel. The results obtained from these two methods were then compared.Results. Overall, tNGS identified 164 positive samples, compared to 91 positives identified by FilmArray. Regarding the shared target species or subtypes, tNGS identified 97 positive samples, whereas the FilmArray respiratory panel detected 88 positives out of 190 specimens. tNGS identified a diverse array of 34 different pathogens, significantly surpassing the 12 pathogens identified by the FilmArray panel. The detection rates for tNGS and FilmArray were 51.05% (97/190) and 46.32% (88/190), respectively. Statistical analysis revealed no significant difference in the detection rates of 10 specific respiratory pathogens (with ≥3 positives). Furthermore, the overall pathogen detection accuracy of tNGS was determined to be 90.16% (95%CI = 83.45%~94.81%), with a sensitivity of 95.45% (88.77%~98.75%).Conclusions. The tNGS method demonstrates broader pathogen detection capability compared to the FilmArray, achieving a higher positive detection rate in upper respiratory tract infections. It demonstrates high accuracy and sensitivity, offering a viable and rapid diagnostic approach for upper respiratory tract infections.
Keywords: TNGS, FilmArray RP 2.1 Panel, URTI, Pathogen identification, multiplex PCR
Received: 12 Apr 2025; Accepted: 30 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Jin, Dai, Zhu, Ma, Li, Kong, Wu, Liu, Li, Du, Xue, Yang, Ye, Luo, Hu and Zhang. 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: Lei Zhang, Guangzhou Kingmed Diagnostics Group Co., Ltd., Guangzhou, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.