Prevalence of High-risk HPV in Postmenopausal Women with Benign Cervical Cytology – A Population-based Cohort Study

AIM: To compare the clinical performance of human papillomavirus (HPV) mRNA and DNA assays in postmenopausal women. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 5,925 postmenopausal women were tested with cytology and the Luminex HPV DNA assay. High risk-HPV-positive women with benign cytology underwent a complimentary HPV mRNA assay (APTIMA). Both assays and the cytological testing were repeated after 12 months. RESULTS: A total of 334 women were found to be high-risk HPV-positive; 272 out of these women met the inclusion criteria. At follow-up, 25 (9.2%) out of the 272 included women had cytological abnormalities. HPV mRNA assay at follow-up had a sensitivity of 84% (95% confidence interval=63.9-95.4%) and a specificity of 60.2% (95% confidence interval=53.7-66.3%; p=0.0003) to detect these lesions. Corresponding values for the HPV DNA assay were 88% (95% confidence interval=68.8-97.4%) and 43.5% (95% confidence interval=37.2-49.4%). CONCLUSION: The HPV mRNA assay offers a comparable sensitivity but a higher specificity than the HPV DNA assay in detecting precancerous cervical lesions.