PURPOSE: to evaluate the high-risk oncogenic human papillomavirus (HPV) detection rate of patients with cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN), checking the association between high-risk HPV, viral load and severity of the lesion, as well as the best viral load cutoff to predict lesion severity. METHODS: this is a cross-sectional study. One hundred and ten patients were selected by cytology and/or biopsy with CIN diagnosis. All of them were submitted to a new oncologic cytology, hybrid capture II (HC II), colposcopy, and loop electrosurgical excision and fulguration procedures (LEEP). RESULTS: the global detection rate of high-risk oncogenic HPV in these women was 77.3%. Eighty-one women (73.7%) had CIN with a detection rate of HPV-DNA of 87.6%. In women with CIN 2 or 3 the detection rate was 85.9%. HC II had a sensitivity of 87.8%, specificity of 56.0%, predictive positive value of 86.6% and predictive negative value of 58.3%, with an odds ratio of 7.76 (2.47 < OR < 25.15) for CIN 2 or 3 diagnosis. Using a receiver operator characteristic curve a viral load cutoff was set at 20 pg/mL in this population, with a predictive positive value of 81.3%. CONCLUSIONS: HPV DNA detection rate of patients with CIN was 77.3%. In women with CIN 2/3 it was 85.9%. The best viral load cutoff to predict cervical lesion severity was 20 pg/ml. Above this level the probability of high-risk oncogenic HPV detection is greater than 80%.
Human papillomavirus; Hybrid capture II; Cervical intra-epithelial neoplasia
