Comparison of nucleic acid hybridization and cytologic examination for detection of human papillomavirus infection, with evaluation of two commercially available hybridization kits.

Human papillomavirus (HPV) infections were detected by analyzing exfoliated cervical cells for HPV DNA by use of nucleic acid hybridization; the results were correlated with cytologic findings on Papanicolaou smears. HPV infection was diagnosed in 154 women (20%) by either morphologic evidence on cervical smears or nucleic acid hybridization. Many of these women (38%; 58/154) exhibited Papanicolaou smears with no morphologic evidence of HPV infection. In those patients with cytologic evidence of HPV infection, only 28% were positive for HPV DNA. HPV 16 and (or) 18 were the most common types (27%) detected in women with cervical intraepithelial neoplasia, whereas all HPV groups tested were equally represented in patients with normal cervical smears. We also present an assessment of 17,000 clinical specimens submitted to this laboratory for analysis of HPV DNA.