Prevalence of papillomarvirus infection in colposcopically directed cervical biopsy specimens in 1972 and 1982

A total of 1264 consecutive cervical biopsy specimens obtained at the Parkland Memorial Hospital Dysplasia Clinic during 1972 were reviewed. Histopathologic specimens were assessed with special reference to changes induced by human papillomavirus. In 1972, only 0.7% of biopsy specimens were reported as consistent with human papillomavirus infection. Upon review, however, 36.5% of these specimens were found to demonstrate histologic criteria for the diagnosis of human papillomavirus infection. Approximately half of biopsy specimens reclassified as human papillomavirus were originally interpreted as inflammation; the others were interpreted as cervical intraepithelial neoplasia. Patients with human papillomavirus infection were significantly younger than patients with cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (24.9 versus 30.2 years). These findings were compared with 965 cervical biopsy specimens obtained in 1982. Thirty-four percent of these biopsy specimens revealed human papillomavirus infection. These observations support the concept that human papillomavirus infection of the cervix is not a new entity but a previously unrecognized finding whose prevalence has been relatively stable over a 10-year period.