OBJECTIVE: To show the prevalence and determine the type of
human papillomavirus (HPV) in healthy women of reproductive age
in Hungary. STUDY DESIGN: We determined HPV nucleic acid using
the Digene Hybrid Capture HPV-DNA assay from endocervical swabs
of 1121 volunteer women of reproductive age. With the help of
the hybridization antibody capture test we determined 14 HPV
types (low risk, intermediate and high risk). RESULTS: HPV
prevalence was 17.5% considering the whole material. At the
Szeged center 27.6% of the women screened were HPV positive,
whereas at the three centers in Budapest, HPV prevalence did not
exceed 15% in either of them. With a cytological examination out
of 1100 cases, 117 (10.6%) were found to be HPV infected. The
virus infection could be shown out of 1018 non-malignant
cytologies in 60 (5.9%) cases and from 82 epithelial lesions 57
(69.5%) were infected. The cytological and molecular HPV
diagnoses showed a significant relation to each other (P<0.001).
The cytological method showed HPV infections with a low degree
of efficiency (sensitivity: 23.8%). On the other hand, the
specificity (92.2%) is an acceptable method for the real
negativity of the light microscopic HPV infection. CONCLUSIONS:
These facts mean regarding the detection of HPV-DNA genoms that
HPV positive cytological reports are false negative and in
dysplasias are false positive. Since in HPV infected women the
development of CIN is a great risk, it is advisable to carry out
the HPV determination and typing in the so-called "endangered"
groups.
