2.1 Patient selection
All subjects gave written informed consent. Combining VBN, ultrathin
bronchoscope, TBLB + ROSE + mNGS for the diagnosis infective PPLs is
our routine process, and this is a retrospective study, therefore, no
formal ethical approval was needed. We retrospectively enrolled
consecutive patients who were clinically and
radiologically suspected of having
infectious PPLs and underwent ultrathin bronchoscopy assisted by the VBN
system and mNGS for the diagnosis of PPLs in our hospital between July
2018 and July 2019. Patients who did not have TBLB, BB and BALF samples
at the same time for mNGS were excluded.