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Updated: May 20, 2026
Use of Interferon-γ Enzyme-linked Immunospot Assay to Characterize Novel T-cell Epitopes of Human Papillomavirus
Published on: March 8, 2012
Clinical and laboratorial study of HPV infection in men infected with HIV
Giuseppe Figliuolo1, Jusimara Maia, Alex P Jalkh
1Fundação da Medicina Tropical Dr. Heitor Vieira Dourado, Manaus, Brazil. gf_urol@hotmail.com
Objectives:
To determine the prevalence of precursor lesions of penile cancer, to establish the concordance of diagnostic techniques (PCR, Hybrid Capture (HC) and peniscopy with acetic acid 5%) in the diagnosis of Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) of the penis of men infected with HIV and to evaluate the influence of the immune status.
Patients, Methods And Results:
276 men were studied, with a median age of 34.6 years. Prevalence of High Risk HPV, Low Risk HPV and infection with both, according to HC, was 43%, 32% and 22%, respectively. PCR showed 50% of positivity for HPV DNA. Peniscopy was positive in 27% of individuals. Peniscopy showed good specificity and low sensitivity for the detection of penile HPV, and low concordance with PCR. Men with white lesions had a 3.6 higher relative risk of positivity for HPV. The most common clinical lesion observed was vegetation, identified in 29% of patients. PCR and HC techniques showed high sensitivity for HPV DNA and there was an excellent correlation between them. Immunosuppressed individuals with CD4 < 200 cells/mm(3) had the highest prevalence of premalignant lesions that were observed in 10% of the studied individuals.
Conclusions:
Peniscopy was important for identification and treatment of subclinical lesions. PCR and HC techniques were sensitive methods for the detection of HPV DNA with high concordance. Severely immunosuppressed individuals showed a higher prevalence of pre-malignant lesions of the penis.
