Preliminary Communication For reprint orders, please contact: reprints@futuremedicine.com Comparative evaluation of GeneXpert MTB/RIF and multiplex PCR targeting mpb64 and IS6110 for the diagnosis of pleural TB Suman Sharma 1 , Bhawna Dahiya 1 , Vishnubhatla Sreenivas 2 , Netrapal Singh 1 , Ankush Raj 1 , Abhishek Sheoran 3 , Aparna Yadav 4 , Krishna B Gupta 5 & Promod K Mehta* ,1 1 Centre for Biotechnology, Maharshi Dayanand University (MDU), Rohtak-124001 (Haryana), India 2 Department of Biostatistics, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi 110029, India 3 Department of Statistics, Amity Institute of Applied Sciences, Amity University, Noida-201303, India 4 Department of Microbiology, University of Health Sciences (UHS), Rohtak-124001, India 5 Department of TB & Respiratory Medicine, UHS, Rohtak-124001, India * Author for correspondence: Tel.: +91 989 650 4193; Fax: +91 126 227 4640; pkmehta3@hotmail.com Aim: Diagnosis of pleural TB poses serious challenges due to paucibacillary nature of specimens and there is an urgent need to devise a reliable diagnostic test. Methods: We compared GeneXpert Mycobacterium tuberculosis/rifampin assay and the multiplex PCR (M-PCR) targeting mpb64 (Rv1980c) and IS6110 in pleu- ral fuids (n = 78) of pleural TB patients and non-TB controls. Results: The sensitivities of 89.6 and 33.3%, and specifcities of 96.7 and 100%, were observed with M-PCR and Xpert assay, respectively. Conclusion: M-PCR showed superiority over Xpert assay and may facilitate an effcient diagnosis of pleural TB. Graphical abstract: Pleural tuberculosis (sign and symptoms) Sample Processing and DNA extraction Cartridge GeneXpert Multiplex PCR High sensitivity (89.6%) & high specificity Low sensitivity (33.3%) & high specificity Graphical representation of GeneXpert assay and multiplex PCR Future Microbiol. (Epub ahead of print) ISSN 1746-0913 10.2217/fmb-2017-0147 C  2018 Future Medicine Ltd