Detection of 14 human papillomavirus genotypes in cervical samples in women from a central-southern area of Italy showing different Pap test results.

We evaluated the prevalence of human papillomavirus (HPV) infection and correlated the molecular test results with the cytological examination data (PAP test) in 364 women living in central-southern Italy (Molise region), by means of polymerase chain reaction HPV DNA genotyping and of cervical cytology. One hundred and twenty-eight women resulted HPV positive (35.2%), HPV16 being the most frequent genotype. HPV positive women were significantly younger than negative patients (35.9 +/- 8.4 years and 38.2 +/- 9.1, respectively; p = 0.018); women with multiple infections were also significantly younger than those with single infection (31.7 +/- 6.9 and 37.6 +/- 8.3, respectively; p = 0.0002). Moreover, high risk HPV positive patients were significantly younger than low risk HPV positive women (35.1 +/- 7.7 and 40.5 +/- 10.5, respectively; p = 0.008). In the HPV positive group, 14 patients (10.9%) did not show any significant cytological alteration. Conversely, 7 out of 236 HPV negative women (3.0%) showed high grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (HSIL). Furthermore, HPV 16 or 18 were present in more than 70% of women positive for HSIL at cytology. Our data suggest the potential effectiveness of combined cytology and molecular test for further study of clinical cases with apparently laboratory conflicting results.