PURPOSE: to evaluate the prevalence of vulval squamous intraepithelial lesions and associated factors in HIV-infected patients attended at the public health services of Rio de Janeiro city. METHOD: a total of 374 HIV-infected patients were attended at public services in Rio de Janeiro city and submitted to gynecological examination, Pap smear and colposcopic examination of the cervix and vulva. The association of vulval intraepithelial lesion was analyzed according to the results of clinical (age and cervical lesions), laboratorial (CD4 count) and behavioral (number of partners and smoking habit) variables. The study (independent) variables were the epidemiological data, the immunologic status and the results of gynecological propaedeutic. Thus, age, the smoking habit, number of sexual partners, count of T CD4 lymphocites, and cervical intraepithelial lesion were selected. In the beginning, a bivariate analysis was performed, aiming at assessing the association between the presence of vulval intraepithelial lesion (ultimate variable) and the independent variables (age, smoking habits, number of sexual partners, cytology, colposcopy and CD4 count). Thereafter, the results with statistical significance (p<0.05) were submitted to a multiple logistic regression, and the probability ratio with the respective 95% confidence interval was established. RESULTS: the prevalence of vulval intraepithelial lesions was 40%. In the multivariate analysis CD4 count below 500 cells/mm³ OR=2.69 [IC 95%: 1.61-4.52], abnormal colposcopy OR=1.64 [IC 95%: 1.01-2.67] and age under 26 OR=1.98 [IC 95%: 1.18-3.30] were significant. In the vulval and cervical simultaneous lesion subgroup, age under 26 OR=3.30 [IC 95%: 1.65-6.59] and CD4 count below 500 cells/mm³ OR=4.15 [IC 95%: 1.92-8.96], were significant on analysis. CONCLUSIONS: the prevalence of vulval squamous intraepithelial lesions in HIV-infected patients is high. Immunodeficiency, presence of cervical intraepithelial lesions and age under 26 were associated with the presence of vulval intraepithelial lesions.
HIV; Vulvar neoplasms; Cervix utery
