Nonisotopic human papillomavirus DNA typing of cervical smears obtained at the initial colposcopic examination

To determine the prevalence of human papillomavirus (HPV) infection in 401 patients attending colposcopy for the first time, scraped cervical cells were investigated using dot blot hybridization and biotinylated DNA probes to HPV 6 and 11 (low-risk types) and 16, 18, and 33 (high-risk types). The HPV DNA was isolated from 52% of patients (low-risk types = 4%, high-risk types = 48%). Seventy-five percent had a cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN)-condyloma. Low-risk types were infrequent (7%) and high-risk types (41%) predominant in condyloma/CIN I lesions when converse rates were expected. As CIN I lesions harboring high-risk types are at some risk of progressing to a higher grade dysplasia, colposcopic examination and treatment of this subgroup would seem justified. As expected, high-risk types were statistically associated with increasing grades of dysplasia. This hybridization method identified typeable HPV DNA in 60% of patients with a CIN-condyloma, and highlighted a unique HPV profile for this patient cohort.