Utility of Conventional Culture and MALDI-TOF MS for Identification of Microbial Communities in Bronchoalveolar Lavage Fluid in Comparison with the GS Junior Next Generation Sequencing System

摘要

BackgroundDiverse microbiota exist in the lower respiratory tract. Although next generation sequencing (NGS) is the most widely used microbiome analysis technique, it is difficult to implement NGS in clinical microbiology laboratories. Therefore, we evaluated the performance of conventional culture methods together with matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) in identifying microbiota in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid.