Background: Little is known about the characteristics of high-risk papillomavirus (HR-HPV) infection in men. The aims of this cross-sectional study were: (a) to investigate HR-HPV prevalence and genotype distribution in men, sexual partners of women presenting with high-grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (HG-CIN), according to epidemiological characteristics, and (b) to assess type-specific concordance between partners.
Methods: A total of 125 men were recruited within the first 6 months after HG-CIN diagnosis of their partner. Samples from the coronal sulcus, glans penis shaft, and scrotum were tested with linear array HPV genotyping assay (Roche Diagnostics, Mannheim, Germany). Type-specific concordance within 120 couples was studied. Epidemiological factors were evaluated by multivariate logistic regression analysis. SPSS 19 (IBM, Chicago, USA).
Results: The prevalence of HR-HPV infection in males was 50.4% (63/125). HPV16/53/52/51/66/31 were the most frequent genotypes (24/10.4/9.6/8.8/8/7.2%, respectively). Current smoking was associated with an increased risk for HR-HPV infection in men (38.2% (21/55) vs 60% (42/70), OR 2.4, p=0.025). Among 60 infected couples, 62% shared at least one genotype: 41.7% couples were concordantly HPV16 positive and 18.3% were HPV16 negative (kappa value: 0.21). The proportion of women with the same genotype as their male partner was higher than the proportion of men sharing the same genotype as their female partner: 58.7% (37/63) vs 30.8% (37/120), p<0.0001.
Conclusions: Sexual partners of women with HG-CIN are a significant reservoir and vector of HPV infection, a fact that could contribute to making viral clearance more difficult to achieve in their partners after treatment of their HG-CIN lesions.
Keywords: Cervical intraepithelial neoplasia; Couples; Cribado poblacional; Epidemiology; Epidemiología; Human papillomavirus DNA test; Male; Mass screening; Neoplasia cervical intraepitelial; Parejas; Test VPH-ADN; Varón.
Copyright © 2016 Elsevier España, S.L.U. and Sociedad Española de Enfermedades Infecciosas y Microbiología Clínica. All rights reserved.