Prevalence of high-risk human papillomavirus (HR-HPV) types 16 and 18 in healthy women with cytologically negative Pap smear

The results indicate that about 10% of women who show a negative Pap smear, but have inflammation are positive for high-risk HPV types 16/18 and about 15% harbor squamous intra-epithelial lesions. It is suggested that high-risk HPV detection can be utilized as an adjunct to routine cytology screening programs to identify 'high risk' women who have concurrently negative Pap smears but may harbor oncogenic HPV infection and/or more likely to develop CIN lesions.