title: Inter-laboratory variability in the presence of human papillomavirus in normal and abnormal cervical cytology samples.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Treatment of cervical carcinoma is affected by the stage of the disease, being most likely curable with early detection. High-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) infection and persistency are necessary to the development of precancerous and cancerous lesions leaving the possibility to detect in time cells progressing in at risk behaviour.
  
  
  METHODS
  This study documents the proportion of HPV DNA positivity in 906 samples with cytological result negative for intraepithelial lesion and malignancy (NILM), 220 atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance (ASC-US) samples and 211 low grade intraepithelial lesions (LSIL) samples collected from various pathological laboratories in Brussels, Belgium.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The proportion of samples harbouring one or more HPV types was 10.8% (95% confidence interval, 95% CI: 8.8-12.8) in NILM, 34.5% (95% CI: 27.6-40.3) in ASC-US, 54.3% (95% CI: 47.5-61.1) in LSIL, with significant variability of HPV proportion in ASC-US and LSIL between laboratories.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study provides an on-site picture, confirming an added value of HPV DNA detection.
authors.affiliation: Unit of Microbiology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Weyn
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Garbar
authors.forename: Jean-Christophe
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Noël
authors.forename: Birgit
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Weynand
authors.forename: Alain
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Verhest
authors.forename: Dominique
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: d'Olne
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Arbyn
authors.forename: Yvon
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Englert
authors.forename: Véronique
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Fontaine
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001530:Belgium; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000302:isolation & purification; D055088:Early Detection of Cancer / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D027383:Papillomaviridae / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D030361:Papillomavirus Infections / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000821:virology; D002583:Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000821:virology*; D014626:Vaginal Smears; D055815:Young Adult; D002578:Uterine Cervical Dysplasia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000821:virology*
chemical_list: D004279:DNA, Viral