Clinical and virological findings in patients with cytologically diagnosed gynecologic herpes simplex infections.

Amoung 57,117 routinely collected Papanicolaou smears from the female genital tract there were 90 slides (0.16%) from 85 patients on which a cytologic diagnosis of herpes simplex virus (HSV) infection was made. The characteristic cytologic changes occurred predominantly on the ectocervical part of the smears. The changes were transient but occasionally remained detectable on the corresponding histologic specimens up to 2.5 months. Viral isolation was successful in a majority of cases when performed simultaneously with or less than a week after the cytologic diagnosis. The rate of success rapidly decreased thereafter. Positive fluorescent antibody assays of viral antigens on cytologic smears behaved similarly. Cases with apparent primary infection as well as with secondary infection (recurrences) were included in the material but no differences in the morphology of virally altered cells and be found, indicating that primary and secondary infections could not be distinguished on this basis. There were significantly more cytologic dysplastic changes as well as assorted micro-organism infections in the HSV group as compared to the controls.