Pulmonary infection of Schizophyllum commune diagnosed by metagenomic next- generation sequencing: A case report

Abstract

Rationale: Fungal infection is common and difficult to be diagnosed timely in clinical, for its various kinds and similar manifestations. The rare pulmonary fungal infection such as Schizophyllum commune was one of the harder ones and misdiagnosed in usual. Patient concerns: We report a 32-year-old female which was diagnosed with Metagenomic Next-Generation Sequencing (mNGS). She was hospitalized with the complaint of 4 months and more of repeated cough and expectorating. The chest computer tomography revealed left lower lobe pathological changes, but antibiotics were ineffective. No positive results were found in laboratory tests, including sputum culture and the pathology of lung puncture biopsy. Diagnoses: mNGS of lung biopsy was performed and detected the sequence number of Schizophyllum for 11. Interventions: The patient was treated with voriconazole and itraconazole successively. Outcomes: She recovered to health. There was no recurrence during follow-up. Lessons: mNGS as a diagnostic method could quickly detect pathogens through the processing of fragment, synthesis, comparison, and analysis of sample genes. It is suitable for detecting especially rare and polymicrobial infections. To our best knowledge, infection of Schizophyllum commune have not been reported in English literature with diagnostic method of mNGS.