Evaluation of HPV 16 PCR detection in self- compared with clinician-collected samples in women referred for colposcopy.
OBJECTIVE
A clinical prospective evaluation study was conducted to evaluate PCR detection of high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) type 16 in self-sampled vaginal compared with clinician-collected cervical specimens.


METHODS
Paired vaginal and cervical specimens were collected from 137 consecutive women referred for colposcopy because of abnormal cervical cytology. In-house and a commercial PCR method for HPV type 16 were used. Self-sampled vaginal HPV 16 detection was compared to histology and physician-collected cervical specimens.


RESULTS
Of the 137 patients, 98 had proven abnormal histology and were included in the analysis. Overall, using the cervix HPV detection as reference method, the self-sampled vaginal sample showed sensitivity 91.8%, specificity 96.1% and agreement kappa (kappa) 0.881. Using the histology as reference, all 11 cervical cancer cases were HPV-16-positive in both cervical and vaginal samples, and in 43 high-grade lesions, detection sensitivity in cervix was 72.1% (kappa 0.588) and vagina 67.4% (kappa 0.516). HPV 16 detection did not differ (P=0.27) between clinician-collected cervical and self-sampled vaginal specimens.


CONCLUSIONS
The self-collected vaginal sample is highly concordant with the physician-collected cervical sample in HPV 16 detection.
Daponte
A
A
Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University Hospital of Larissa, Larissa, Greece. dapontea@otenet.gr
Pournaras
S
S
Mademtzis
I
I
Hadjichristodoulou
C
C
Kostopoulou
E
E
Maniatis
A N
AN
Messinis
I E
IE
D002584:Cervix Uteri / Q000473:pathology* / Q000821:virology*; D003127:Colposcopy; D005260:Female; D052162:Human papillomavirus 16; D006801:Humans; D030361:Papillomavirus Infections / Q000473:pathology / Q000821:virology*; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012648:Self Care / Q000379:methods; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D002583:Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology / Q000821:virology; D014621:Vagina / Q000473:pathology* / Q000821:virology*; D014626:Vaginal Smears / Q000379:methods