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 pleural fluids (n = 78) of pleural TB patients and non-TB controls.
Results: The sensitivities of 89.6 and 33.3%, and specificities 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 efficient diagnosis of pleural TB.
Keywords: GeneXpert; IS6110; Mycobacterium tuberculosis; mpb64; multiplex PCR; paucibacillary; pleural TB; pleural fluid; sensitivity; specificity.