Mode of human papillomavirus infection in gynecologic outpatients

Objective: To study the characteristics of genotypes of human papillomavirus (HPV) infection in gynecologic outpatients. Methods: We selected 2 641 patients who came from Xi'an City and neighboring districts to the outpatient section of Gynecologic Department of the First Affiliated Hospital, Xi'an Jiaotong University, between November 2009 and November 2011. All of them had sex life and requested cervical screening. We analyzed HPV infection and HPV subtype infection as well as HPV infection for different age group. Results: HPV infection rate of the gynecological outpatients was relatively high (37.15%). Most of them were high-risk, accounting for 68.4% of all HPV infection. Low-risk HPV infection rate accounted for 10.5%. The Chinese common subtype accounted for 6.73%. Mixed infections by two or three of the above-mentioned HPV subtypes accounted for 14.37%. Among them, the main genotypes of high-risk HPV infection were HPV16, HPV58 and HPV52; HPV6 and HPV11 were the main genotypes of low-risk infection. We did not find any case of HPV43 genotype infection. HPV genotype infection rates were related to age. The older patients were, the higher high-risk HPV infection rate was. For patients between 18-30 years old, high-risk HPV infection rate was about 21.7% and for those over 60 years old, it reached 30.56%. Low-risk HPV infection rate was higher for patients 18-30 years old and over 60 years old, but lower for other age groups. Conclusion: HPV infection rate of gynecologic outpatients in Xi'an was relatively high (37.15%). High-risk and low-risk HPV infections differ significantly for different age groups.