Abstract
The evidence on genotype‐specific risk in women infected with human papillomavirus (HPV) with normal cytology and the importance of the distinction of high‐risk (HR)‐HPV genotypes in the management of low‐grade lesions suggest that the distinction of HR‐HPV genotypes has the potential to improve the follow‐up of patients treated for high‐grade cervical lesions. The aims of this study were to define the persistence of the different HR‐HPV in the follow‐up of surgical treated women, to detect the changes of genotypes from the pre‐ to the post‐operative status, and to evaluate whether genotype‐specific persistence can predict the development of residual or recurrent disease during the follow‐up. HR‐HPV detection and genotyping was carried out by the Linear Array HPV Genotyping Test® on cervical cytological samples from 72 women treated by surgery. The 6‐month post‐operative HPV status was correlated with the pre‐operative HPV genotype and with the residual or recurrent disease within 24 months. It was observed that the residual or recurrent disease in women with persistence of HPV 16 and/or HPV 18 was higher (82.4%) than in women with persistence of at least one HR‐HPV type of group 2 (HPV 31, 33, 35, 45, 52, and 58) (66.7%) and at least one type of group 3 (HPV 39, 51, 56, 59, 68, 26, 53, 66, 73, and 82) (14.3%). These data defined HR‐HPV groups for the risk of progression of disease and suggested that the identification of persistent infection with different HR‐HPV genotypes has the potential to improve the management of these patients. J. Med. Virol. 80:1434–1440, 2008. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.