Amplification of human papilloma virus DNA in cervico-vaginal lavages by PCR with the CPI/HG consensus primer pair

ABSTRACT

The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used to detect the presence of a variety of genital human papilloma virus (HPV) types in cervico-vaginal lavages obtained from 44 women. Of these, one-half were diagnosed, by cytological and/or histological methods, with a cervical abnormality indicative of HPV infection and the other twenty-two had no history of cervical HPV infection or cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN). Fourteen (64 percent) of the women suspected of having an HPV infection of the cervix, and seven (32 percent) of those with no history of HPV infection were found to be positive after PCR amplification of a 188 bp fragment of the HPV genome using the CPI/CPIIG consensus primer set designed to detect genital HPV types. The results show that this primer set can be used to detect HPV in the cervix and give some indication of the presence of HPV in the genital tract of presumably "health" women (AU)