[HPV infection: comparison between morphological studies and molecular biology].

Human Papilloma Virus plays an essential role in the development of cervical cancer. We investigated the global prevalence of Human Papilloma Virus infection in a population of 699 women recruited at the Ospedali Riuniti in Foggia for gynaecological controls from September 2005 to March 2007, and compared with a group of 90 women, selected on clinical aspects for Human Papilloma Virus features. The observed prevalence was 27.4%, which is higher that that reported in the literature. In the study group, the most frequent viral type was 16, while type 18 was considerably less frequent compared with other emergent viral types (39, 52, 56, 58, 59). The high prevalence of Human Papilloma Virus-DNA in women with negative cytology or inflammatory changes raises doubts about the utility of the Human Papilloma Virus-DNA method as a primary screening test because of the low cost/benefit ratio. The absence of uniform and standardised reports does not allow objective comparison between different methods of analysis (cytology, colposcopy and molecular biology), pointing out the need for a unique centre for collection and data analysis.