Application of Next-Generation Sequencing for Genetic Diagnosis in Neonatal Intensive Care Units: Results of a Multicenter Study in China
Tianwen Zhu, Xiaohui Gong, Fei Bei, Li Ma, Yan Chen, Yonghong Zhang, Yonghong Zhang, Xia Wang, Jingjing Sun, Jian Wang, Gang Qiu, Jianhua Sun, Yu Sun, Yongjun Zhang, Yongjun Zhang
Abstract
To identify next-generation-sequencing (NGS) clinical usability and to propose a standard diagnostic routine for critically ill infants, aged less than 100 days and suspected of having a genetically heterogeneous condition, a retrospective study was conducted between January 2016 and December 2018 at neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) of three tertiary hospitals in Shanghai, China. Whole-exome sequencing (WES) or panel sequencing was performed on 307 patients. Trio-WES, trio-panel, proband-WES, and proband-panel diagnostic yields were 39.71% (83/209), 68.75% (22/32), 59.09% (26/44), and 33.33% (4/12), respectively. Definitive molecular diagnoses of 142 infants (46.25%) uncovered 99 disorders; 21 disorders displayed on 44.37% of the diagnosed patients. Genetic etiologies were identified for 61.73% (50/81) of the deceased infants. One in three (29.58%) diagnosed infants exhibited one of the following four clinical traits which had a higher odds of diagnostic rate: integument abnormality (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 19.7; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.5-156.3), complex immune-related phenotypes (aOR, 9.2; 95% CI, 1.4-83.5), mixed nervous system phenotypes and congenital anomalies (aOR, 5.0; 95% CI, 1.3-19.1), or mixed metabolism and nervous system phenotypes (aOR, 4.5; 95% CI, 1.0-21.5). Our results demonstrated that NGS was an effective diagnostic tool. Infants exhibiting integument, complex immune-related conditions, metabolism, and nervous signs have higher chances of carrying variants in known disease-causing genes. The number of specific phenotypes could be used as an independent predictor of a positive molecular diagnosis, rather than an isolated abnormality. We developed a molecular diagnostic procedure for the use of NGS for diagnosis in Chinese NICU population based on individual characteristics.