Clinicopathology and immunohistochemistry of genital warts

Genital warts are a fairly common sexually transmitted disease and often affect young, illiterate subjects of poor socioeconomic status in India. The mean incubation period was 2.4 months, and the duration varied from 10 days to 4 years. Hyperplastic sessile, verruca vulgaris-like, and flat variants of warts were seen in that sequence, with distinct clinical features. The epidermal and the dermal changes were largely identical; however, the flat type in the epidermal changes were inconspicuous. Koilocytosis was a pathognomonic feature in 28, whereas human papilloma virus (HPV) antigens were detected through peroxidase-antiperoxidase technique in 18 patients.