Prevalence of high risk human papillomavirus infection with different cervical cytological features among women undergoing health examination at the National Cancer Institute, Thailand.

High-risk (HR) human papillomavirus (HPV) testing is important in cervical cancer screening for triage colposcopy. The objective of the study was to evaluate the prevalence of HR HPV infection with different cervical cytological features among women undergoing health examination. A total of 2,897 women were retrospectively evaluated between May 2011 to December 2011. DNA was extracted from residual specimens collected during routine liquid-based cytology tests at the National Cancer Institute. Overall, HR HPV prevalence was 9.3% including 1.6% of HPV-16 and 0.4% of HPV-18. Of all 270 HPV positive samples, 211 (78.1% were HR-HPV non 16/18; 47 (17.4%) were HPV-16 and 12 (4.4%) were HPV-18. The prevalence of HPV infection was similar in all age groups, although a higher rate was observed in women age 31-40 years. Among women with normal cytology, HR HPV positive were found in 6.7%. In abnormal cytology, HR HPV were found 46.7% in atypical squamous cells (ASC), 54.8% in low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (LSIL) and 80.0% in high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (HSIL). HPV-16 was detected in 8.6%, 6.4% and 12.0% of ASC, LSIL and HSIL, respectively. The results of this study provide baseline information on the HPV type distribution, which may be useful for clinicians to decide who should be monitored or treated more aggressively.