Purpose: To determine the prevalence of HPV 16, 18, 31 and 45 in cervical screening samples of women with cellular changes and/or colposcopy suggestive of persistent high grade or low grade lesion who were submitted to conization.
Methods: A total of 120 women were included in the study. Histological analysis of the cervical cones revealed 7 cases of cervicitis, 22 of CIN1, 31 of CIN2, 54 of CIN3, and 6 invasive carcinomas. The cervical screening samples were analyzed before conization for the presence of HPV-DNA by PCR using the consensus primers PGMY09/11. HPV-DNA-positive samples were tested for the presence of HPV16, 18, 31 and 45 using type-specific primers for these HPV.
Results: HPV-DNA was detected in 67.5% of the studied women. HPV 16 (40%) was the most prevalent type in most ilesions, followed by HPV 31 (13.3%), 45 (13.3%), and 18 (4.1%). Multiple infections occurred in 15% of the cases and infections with other HPV types were detected in 14% of the sample.
Conclusions: HPV 16 and 18 infections do not always occur as a single infection, and may be associated with other HPV types on different occasions.