Clinical performance of the Cobas 4800 HPV test and the Aptima HPV assay in the management of women referred to colposcopy with minor cytological abnormalities

Background The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical performance of the Cobas 4800 HPV test and the Aptima HPV assay for the detection of CIN2+ disease in women referred to colposcopy with minor cytological abnormalities. Methods ThinPrep liquid-based cytology samples were collected from 562 women referred to colposcopy with minor cytological abnormalities. HPV testing by both assays was performed on these samples. Clinical performances for detection of histologically diagnosed CIN2+ and CIN3+ were calculated. Results HPV prevalence by the Cobas 4800 HPV test was 58.2% and 53.0% women tested positive with the Aptima HPV assay in the entire study population. The Aptima HPV assay and the Cobas 4800 HPV test displayed equivalent sensitivity of 90.2% (95%CI, 83.4-94.9) for the detection of CIN2+ disease. However, the Aptima HPV assay displayed greater specificity of 61.0% (95% CI, 54.0-68.0) when compared to the Cobas 4800 HPV test 53.0% (95% CI, 46.0-60.0), and this was significantly higher (P = .0004). The Aptima HPV assay also displayed higher specificity 76.5% (95% CI, 66.0-85.0) in the ASCUS category in comparison to the Cobas 4800 HPV test 65.0% (95% 54.0-75.0) which was statistically significant (P = .004). Conclusions Both the tests displayed similar sensitivity. However, the Aptima HPV assay was significantly more specific in the identification of women with CIN2+ disease in a colposcopy referral population.