V. Labropoulou et al., TYPE-SPECIFIC PREVALENCE OF GENITAL HUMAN PAPILLOMAVIRUSES IN BENIGN,PREMALIGNANT, AND MALIGNANT BIOPSIES IN PATIENTS FROM GREECE, Sexually transmitted diseases, 24(8), 1997, pp. 469-474
Background and Objectives: More than 30 different human papillomavirus
(HPV) types infect the anogenital mucosa and are responsible for a va
riety of benign, premalignant, and malignant lesions including cervica
l cancer, The goal of this study was to determine the distribution of
individual HPV types in various grades of cervical precancerous lesion
s cinema in patients from Greece, Study Design: Specimens were analyze
d for HPV-DNA sequences by polymerase chain reaction and Southern blot
hybridization, Polymerase chain reaction analysis was performed with
consensus and type-specific primers. Restriction length fragment polym
orphism analysis and/or hybridization of the general primer polymerase
chain reaction product were used for HPV typing. Results: In cervical
carcinomas HPV-16 was found in 56%, HPV-18 in 23%,and HPV-31 in 6% of
the HPV-positive patients, In precancerous lesions HPV-16 was found i
n 13% of low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (LG-SIL) as compar
ed with 41% of high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (LG-SIL) pa
tients, HPV-18 was found at similar frequency both in LG-SIL (13%) and
HG-SIL (14%), HPV-31 and HPV-33 were detected at moderate levels both
in LG-SIL (11%) and in HG-SIL (14%). In addition, HPV-53 and HPV-66 w
ere detected at low frequency in LG-SIL (2%), whereas HPV-51 was found
only in HG-SIL (4%), Finally, HPV-6 was associated with 13% of LG-SIL
. Conclusions: Overall, the prevalence rate of the genital HPV types w
as in the range previously described for many western countries but th
e HPV-18 positivity was higher than that reported for most European co
untries.