CORRELATION OF HUMAN PAPILLOMAVIRUS DNA DETECTION IN BIOPSIES OF CERVICAL LESIONS AND THE CORRESPONDING CERVICAL SWABS WITH THE SAME METHODOF IN-SITU HYBRIDIZATION

Human papillomavirus types 16 and 18 (HPV 16/18) are considered to pla y an important role in the pathogenesis of cervical intraepithelial ne oplasia (CIN) and invasive cancer of the uterine cervix. The in situ h ybridization (ISH) is the only method demonstrating a correlation betw een histopathological findings and the presence of specific HPV DNA, b ut its sensitivity is limited. To determine whether or not the mode of sample taking contributes to the reported HPV prevalence with this me thod two observers examined the cervical swabs and tissue sections of 41 CIN lesions independently with the same commercial ISH kits (PathoG ene TM/Enzo Diagnostics Inc., New York). HPV prevalences were almost i dentical in both sample groups (21/41 HPV positive tissue sections and 23/41 HPV positive swabs). 30/41 samples (73 %) showed identical HPV- ISH results in the biopsy and the corresponding swab. There was only o ne CIN 1 lesion with different associated HPV types in the correspondi ng tissue section and cervical swab. By accumulating the results of bo th sample groups 27 out of 41 CIN lesions had either an HPV positive s wab or biopsy or both. The percentage of HPV 16/18 positive samples in creased with the severity of the associated lesion.