Dr. Robert Whitfield explains what PCR and NGS results actually mean. A positive result confirms microbial DNA is present, but not that live organisms or active infection exist. A negative result doesn't rule out infection either, since sampling error and uneven distribution can cause false negatives.
This brings us to one of the more important interpretation points. PCR and NGS detect microbial genetic material, and detection does not itself prove that intact organisms were there alive at the time of testing. It does not by itself prove, you know, an active infection. It does not really establish that the organism created that mature biofilm in that specimen. So it doesn't really have, you know, the causation, but it does establish like what we find, what's there predominantly. And certainly, you could argue that genetic material could be there for other reasons. If you're, you know, looking at the other side, a negative result Also does not mean that something is not going on, that there's not a microbial process. Once again, these are samples, and not every sample is gonna have every organism or where the organism with the biofilm was taken. So microorganisms may obviously be distributed unevenly, like I just said, across the specimen.
