Cervical-vaginal disease in HIV immunosuppressed patients: management and present screening programme.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the rate of the cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (L-SIL and H-SIL) in HIV-positive patients using cytological, colposcopic and histological examinations. The correlations between these cervical lesions, the role of HPV and the clinical and immunological aspects of HIV infection and inflammatory cervical-vaginal disease were studied. We believe that HPV infection and preneoplastic and/or neoplastic lesions occur more often in immunodepressed HIV-positive patients, and that on the grounds of the high risk of precancerous lesions in this population and the low sensibility of the Pap test, it is advisable to perform a colposcopic examination to discover early lesions that must undergo a specific biopsy.