1. Testing for human papillomavirus and measurement of viral load of HPV 16 and 18 in self-collected vaginal swabs of women who do not undergo cervical cytological screening in Southern France
- Author
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Patrice Heid, Lucien Piana, Catherine Tamalet, Xavier Carcopino, François-Xavier Leandri, Laurence Leretraite, Hervé Richet, Hélène Sancho-Garnier, Mireille Henry, Virology, Hôpital de la Timone [CHU - APHM] (TIMONE), Fédération de Microbiologie Clinique, Service de Gynécologie Obstétrique, Hôpital nord, Arcades, ARCADES, and Epidaure
- Subjects
Adult ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Prevalence ,Self Administration ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,Virology ,Epidemiology ,medicine ,Humans ,Mass Screening ,030212 general & internal medicine ,Cervix ,Aged ,Cervical cancer ,Gynecology ,Human papillomavirus 16 ,Cervical screening ,Human papillomavirus 18 ,business.industry ,Papillomavirus Infections ,HPV infection ,Middle Aged ,Viral Load ,medicine.disease ,3. Good health ,Infectious Diseases ,medicine.anatomical_structure ,030220 oncology & carcinogenesis ,Vagina ,Medicine ,Female ,France ,business ,Viral load - Abstract
Self-sampling using vaginal swabs could be a valuable alternative to screen for cervical cancer for women who do not attend regular cytological screening. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of high and low-risk HPV types and of HPV type 16 and 18 DNA load in self-collected vaginal swabs from 35- to 69-year-old Southern French women of low socioeconomic level or migrant populations who do not attend regular cervical screening. A good concordance (93.1%) was found between cervical brush and vaginal swabs in 29 samples. Self-collected vaginal swabs were examined from 120 women. HPV infection was found in 28 women (23.3%; median age 48 years), 17 (14.1%) of whom harbored high-risk HPV types. HPV type 16 was the high risk type found most frequently, followed by types 53, 31, 18, 58, and 66. The low-risk type detected most frequently was HPV type 6, followed by types 61, 70, and 81. The mean HPV 16 and 18 load was 6.3 log10 copies/106 cells and 2.4 log10 copies/106 cells, respectively. These results suggest that vaginal self-swabs can be a reliable tool for cervical cancer screening in non-attending and inadequately screened elderly women. J. Med. Virol. 82:1431–1437, 2010. © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
- Published
- 2010