Microbial Sequencing of Synovial Fluid for Diagnosing Joint Infections, 2020-2022

2,011 synovial fluid specimens from outpatient surgical clinics were analyzed between 2020 and 2022. The dataset compares microbial next-generation sequencing results with standard infection biomarkers for diagnosing periprosthetic joint infections. It was created by Craig D. Tipton and shared under a CC-BY-4.0 license.

Use Cases

• Validate microbial next-generation sequencing as a diagnostic tool based on its performance against ICM 2018 criteria.
• Analyze the concordance between NGS positivity and synovial biomarker levels (CRP, WBC, PMN) mentioned in the description.
• Investigate the prevalence of specific bacterial species in periprosthetic joint infections based on the finding that eight species dominated 68% of samples.
• Assess the risk of false positive detections in diagnostic workflows based on the reported 7.7% NGS positivity in ICM-negative samples.

Strengths

• Dataset includes 2,011 specimens, providing a substantial sample size for analysis.
• Performance metrics for NGS are provided with confidence intervals (e.g., 76.4% sensitivity, 92.3% specificity).
• Statistical associations between NGS results and biomarker levels (e.g., p < 0.0001) are reported, adding analytical depth.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect temporal and source bias inherent to specimens submitted to a single laboratory from 2020-2022.

Provenance

Source

Synovial fluid specimens submitted to MicroGenDX by outpatient surgical clinics.

Collection Method

Retrospective analysis of matched synovial biomarker and next-generation sequencing data.

Time Range

2020-2022

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-11 05:25:50; freshness should be verified.