Purpose: To investigate the prevalence of cervical human papilloma virus (HPV) with genotyping and simultaneous cervical cytology among Turkish women in a university hospital. A review of literature was done as well to summarize the results of similar Turkish studies based on hospital data.
Methods: Women who were subjected to cervical HPV-DNA testing with simultaneous cervical Pap test were included. Seeplex HPV 18-plex Genotyping Test was used for HPV detection and typing. Liquid-based cytology was used for Pap test and Bethesda system was used for results.
Results: Study group included 890 patients with a mean age of 39.5 years. The prevalence of any HPV was 25.7% while high-risk HPV was positive in 23.0%. There were no significant differences in HPV prevalence between younger and older women. Among HPV-positive women, 89.5% had at least one type of high-risk HPV. Most common HPV was type 16 followed by type 31 and 51. Abnormal cervical cytology rate was 11.6%. Rate of HPV positivity was significantly higher in women with abnormal cervical cytology compared to women with normal cytology (54.4 vs. 22.0%).
Conclusions: Cervical HPV infection is a serious and gradually growing problem for Turkish women according to hospital-based data. This may be associated with low age at marriage and more sensitive HPV detection methods.