Nationwide Results of Microorganism Antigen Testing as a Component of Preoperative Synovial Fluid Analysis.

Background: Antigen immunoassays to detect synovial fluid (SF) microorganisms have recently been made available for clinical use. The purpose of this study was to determine the sensitivity and specificity of an SF microorganism antigen immunoassay detection (MID) panel, evaluate the panel's capability to detect microorganisms in the setting of culture-negative periprosthetic joint infection (PJI), and determine diagnostic predictive values of the MID panel for PJI.

Methods: This study included 67,441 SF samples obtained from a hip or knee arthroplasty, from 2,365 institutions across the United States, submitted to 1 laboratory for diagnostic testing.