Detection of cervical infections in colposcopy clinic patients

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine if Neisseria gonorrhoeae; Chlamydia trachomatis; herpes simplex virus; cytomegalovirus; Epstein-Barr virus; human herpesviruses 6, 7, and 8; or adeno-associated virus influenced the production of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia. Two hundred thirty-one cervical smear samples were tested for the presence of the organisms by PCR. In addition, human papillomavirus types in the samples were determined by PCR and classified into cancer risk types of high, moderate, and low. There was no link with cervical intraepithelial neoplasia status and detection of herpes simplex virus, cytomegalovirus, Epstein-Barr virus, human herpesviruses 6 and 8, gonorrhea, or chlamydia. However, high-grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia was found more frequently with mixed infection by moderate-risk human papillomavirus types and human herpesvirus 7 than with these papillomavirus types alone. The presence of human herpesvirus 7 may increase the oncogenic potential of moderate-risk human papillomavirus types.

FIG. 1

Incidence of cervical infections by age. Cervical specimens were tested for the pathogens shown, and the results are presented by patient age group. Hatched markings indicate mixed HPV infections.

FIG. 2

The percentages of samples containing high-, moderate-, or low-risk HPV types with CIN 3 are shown. Within each HPV risk group, a distinction was made between the proportion of samples containing HHV-7 and those in which HHV-7 was not detected. For high-risk HPV types, the P value is 0.09; for moderate-risk HPV types, the P value is 0.016; and for low-risk HPV types, the P value is 0.3.