Prevalence of genital papilloma virus infections in asymptomatic and symptomatic women, studied with a combined dot-blot and Southern blot procedure.

A technique for the detection and typing of genital infections with human papilloma virus (HPV) is described. Following a non-invasive sampling and a simplified preparation procedure, the analysis was performed as a combined dot-blot and Southern blot analysis, where the former test was used to exclude cases without demonstrable content of HPV DNA. The subgenomic probes used in the Southern blot analyses have a higher specificity than can be achieved with genomic ones, and only one band is obtained for each of HPV types 6, 11, 16, 18, 31, 33 and 35. Extra bands indicating the presence of cross-reacting HPV of undetermined type occurred in only 0.7% of the 1,268 cases tested. HPV was demonstrated in 7.8% of the 612 health control samples and in 16% of 634 consecutive samples from patients with symptoms. All but type 18 occurred more commonly in symptomatic than in asymptomatic patients. Presence of HPV also correlated to cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) in simultaneously collected smears. The HPV was demonstrated in 13% of patients with normal cytology, in 45% with CIN and in 82% of patients with invasive carcinoma. All types of HPV occurred more commonly in CIN patients, while only types 16, 18, 31 and 33 were found in the patients with cancer.