[Anogenital papillomavirus lesions in humans with or without HIV infection. Comparison of colposcopic, histopathological and virological results].

Anal and genital lesions caused by human papilloma virus (HPV) may be associated with severe dysplasia and cancer, chiefly in cases of "high risk" HPV types 16, 18, 31, 35, 51. The frequency of HPV infections and the severity of genital cancers seem to be increased in patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. PATIENTS AND METHOD. The distribution of different HPV types was compared with the anatomical and clinical features of the lesions in two populations, one HIV+ (n = 40) and the other HIV- (n = 48), who had anal and genital lesions. The HPV DNA was determined by molecular hybridization in situ, using biotinylated probes which recognized HPV types 6/11, 16/8 and 31/35/51 on 99 lesions. RESULTS. HIV+ subjects differed from HIV- subjects in that a higher proportion of them had anal lesions (50 p. 100 vs 10 p. 100) and condyloma latum (80 p. 100 vs 50 p. 100). Koilocytosis without dysplasia was more often found in HIV- subjects (12.5 p. 100 vs 55 p. 100). Conversely, dysplasia was more frequent among the lesions of HIV+ subjects: grade I 39.5 p. 100 vs 17.5 p. 100; grade II 25 p. 100 vs 4 p. 100; grade III 12.5 p. 100 vs 0 p. 100. Koilocytosis was preferentially associated with condyloma acuminatum. In HIV+ subjects the DNA of HPV, detected in 73 p. 100 of the lesions, was "high risk" HPV DNA in 86 p. 100 of the cases, whereas in HIV- subjects 51 p. 100 of the samples were positive in hybridization, and 61.5 p. 100 had "low risk" HPV DNA. In subjects of all groups "high risk" HPV was found in dysplastic lesions. CONCLUSION. HIV seropositive subjects show an imbalanced distribution of HPV with predominance of "high risk" HPV. This suggests that immunodepression encourages infection by this oncogenic virus, thereby contributing to the frequency of cancer in HIV+ subjects.