Table 3.

The potential pathogen detection rate of mNGS and conventional methods in CNS infections with or without empirically treated.

Detection rate	No history of empirical treatment	History of empirical treatment	p value
Detection rate of CNS infections (n = 64)
mNGS (n = 44)	65.22% (15/23)	70.73% (29/41)	0.7798
Conventional methods (n = 17)	8.70% (2/23)	36.59% (15/41)	0.0187
Bacterial infections (n = 22)
mNGS(n = 17)	77.78% (7/9)	76.92% (10/13)	0.1175
Conventional methods(n = 4)	11.11% (1/9)	23.08% (3/13)	0.6161
Fungal infections (n = 9)
mNGS (n = 8)	100.00% (2/2)	85.71% (6/7)	0.4785
Conventional methods (n = 2)	0.00% (0/2)	28.57% (2/7)	0.9147
Viral infections (n = 26)
mNGS (n = 15)	54.55% (6/11)	60.00% (9/15)	0.7068
Conventional methods (n = 2)	0.00% (0/2)	13.3% (2/15)	0.5363