Introduction/Background It is widely acknowledged that infection with human papillomavirus (HPV) is a significant risk factor for vaginal lesions. Previous studies regarding HPV types in vaginal intraepithelial neoplasia (VAIN) and vaginal cancer indicated inconsistent conclusions, and did not explore the correlation of HPV viral load and vaginal lesions.

Methodology A total of 176 women who underwent examining for Lower genital tract lesions were enrolled in this cross-sectional study with definite pathological diagnosis, among which, 99 patients with vaginal lesions and 77 patients without vaginal lesions were included. HPV types and viral load were detected by BioPerfectus Multiplex Real-Time PCR assay, and 109 cases were HPV positive, which included separate vaginal lesions (n=44), negative for intraepithelial lesion or malignancy (NILM, n=31), separate cervical lesions (n=16) and vaginal lesions concomitant with cervical lesions (n=18). The relevance was analyzed between viral load and vaginal lesions.

Results In patients with vaginal lesions, the HPV detection rate was 89.7% (87/99). Women with VAIN2/3 (n=12) or vaginal cancer (n=2) were all HPV positive and 57.14% (8/14) were HPV16 positive. Top five leading HPV types of vaginal lesions were HPV16 (24.2%), HPV52 (24.2%), HPV53 (16.1%), HPV58 (14.5%) and HPV66 (14.5%). Compared with histopathologically normal cases, separate vaginal lesions had a higher rate of HPV multiple infection (47.7% vs 29.0%). Besides, the viral load of HPV type 16, 52, 58 appeared higher for women with separate vaginal lesions than those with NILM (P=0.026, 0.002, 0.013 respectively). For women with cervical lesions, the viral load of HPV showed little difference whether there was coexistence of vaginal lesions or not.

Conclusion Our findings suggest that HPV16, 52, 53, 58, 66 are more prevalent in vaginal lesions, and infection with HPV16 may have a higher risk of VAIN2/3 or vaginal cancer. Some type-specific HPV viral load may provide indication for vaginal lesions.

Disclosure Nothing to disclose