Distribution of high-risk types of human papillomavirus compared to histopathological findings in cervical biopsies in women

Introduction: In over of 99% cases of cervical cancer its appearing is preceded by persistent cervical epithelium infection caused by high-risk oncogenic types of human papillomavirus (HPV). The aim of the study was to examine the distribution of high-risk oncogenic HPV types compared to patohistological diagnoses of cervical diseases in women. Materials and methods: The study included 56 women with suspected premalignant and malignant cervical lesions, due to suspected colposcopic and cytological findings (Papanicolaou test). The HPV typing by 'in situ' hybridization method on high-risk HPV types 16, 18, 31 and 33 was performed in all patients from cervical smear as well as cervical biopsy. Histological findings of cervical biopsy was a 'gold standard' in the analysis of materials. Results: Histologically detected premalignant or malignant changes of the cervix were found at 34 (60.7%) of all 56 examined women: 17 of them had LSIL, 13 of them had HSIL, while 4 had squamous cell carcinoma. A positive HPV test had a 47 (84%) of them with a prove of the presence of one or more types of HPV. The most common type of virus was HPV 16 and it was detected in 27 (48.2%) women, followed by HPV 31 that was detected in 26 (46.4%) women, HPV 18 in 18 (32.1%) of women and HPV 33 in 4 (7.1%) women. The infection caused by oncogenic type HPV16 was significantly more frequent in patients with HSIL and cervical cancer (p<0,001), while the infection caused by oncogenic type HPV 31 was significantly more frequent in patients with LSIL and cervicitis (p=0,003). The distribution of HPV 18 and HPV 33 types was not statistically significantly different in patients with different histological findings (HPV 18, p = 0.41; HPV 33, p = 1.0). Conclusion: Based on our results we can conclude that there is a good correlation of HPV infection with pre-malignant cervical lesions and cervical cancer. The incidence of HPV type 16 infection increased with severity of cervical lesions and it is usually detected high-risk oncogenic type virus in women with severe cervical lesions type like HSIL and cancer are. HPV 31 is the most common high-risk type of HPV of mild type lesions, like LSIL and cervicitis are. We believe that women infected by high-risk oncogenic HPV types, although without histologically diagnose of cervical lesion, should be more frequent control by colposcopy and cytology (Papanicolaou) test, because of possible disease progression to a more advanced level.