CLINICAL-FEATURES AND AGE DISTRIBUTION OF PATIENTS WITH HPV 2 27/57-INDUCED COMMON WARTS/

The morphology of common warts depends on the inducing human papilloma virus (HPV) type, Tn order to assess the impact of the virus type on w art epidemiology we determined the virus type by PCR and recorded anam nestic data of 238 patients with common warts, Warts induced by the re lated HPV types 2, 27 and 57 predominated in the study population (n = 202), These warts mostly occurred as multiple verrucae vulgares, mosa ic warts or endophytic warts, Patients aged between 10 and 30 years we re most affected and they typically displayed a long disease history ( mean duration of warts at the time of first clinical examination, 22 m onths), A different age distribution was observed in HPV 1-induced war ts, most of which occurred in children 6-10 years of age, HPV 2-relate d warts responded only modestly to treatment, as they persisted in app roximately 50% of all patients for more than 6 additional months, No s ex preference was detected, but an association with atopic diseases wa s noted as 39.8% of patients with warts containing HPV 2-related virus es showed a history of atopic eczema, pollinosis or asthma as compared with 20.6% of the control population without a history of warts or wi th short-duration wart disease, Thus, our results indicate that the ep idemiology, as well as morphology, of common warts is closely linked t o the virus type.