Purpose of investigation: To document the prevalence of infection by multiple genotypes of the human papilloma virus (HPV) in patients with cervical pathology in a study population, and to determine the relationship between multiple genotype infection, age of the patient, and the type of cervical pathology.
Materials and methods: Prospective, cross-sectional descriptive study. A total of 1,007 patients were recruited among women seen at the cervical pathology clinic of Sant Joan de Déu University Hospital in Barcelona (Spain) between January 2003 and March 2011. Statistical analyses were done with SPSS v.19 software. Differences between groups were considered statistically significant atp < 0.05.
Results: There was 28.3% of the women (286 cases) that were infected by multiple HPV genotypes. The mean number of genotypes identified was 2.52 (range 2 to 8). Mean age of the patients with multiple genotype infection was 32.31 years, and mean age of the patients with single genotype infection was 37.27 years (p < 0.001). The prevalence of infection by multiple HPV genotypes was 28% in patients with cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade 1 (CIN 1) and 33% in patients with grade CIN 2-3 lesions, and both prevalence rates were significantly higher than in patients with carcinoma (20%) (p = 0.03).
Conclusions: In the present study population the authors found no evidence of higher prevalence of multiple HPV genotype infection in women with carcinoma. Age of women with multiple infection was lower than those with single infection.