Sexually transmitted papillomaviral infection in the male: VI. Simultaneous urethral cytology-ViraPap testing of male consorts of women with genital human papillomaviral infection.

A series of 122 males at high risk for development of human papillomavirus (HPV) infection were prospectively studied with simultaneous urethral brushing cytology and ViraPap, to establish their relative sensitivity and specificity in relation to the diagnosis of HPV infection in the urethral canal. The prevalence of disease in this high-risk population was 10 percent. The sensitivity of DNA hybridization was determined to be 67 percent, with a 100 percent specificity, as compared with a 25 percent sensitivity of cytologic analysis. Physical examination alone had a 75 percent sensitivity. Physical examination with ViraPap urethral analysis identified all patients with urethral HPV-associated disease. These results indicate that clinical examination alone misses one quarter of the HPV-involved patients.