Correlation between human papillomavirus type and progressive potential of low grade squamous intra-epithelial dysplastic lesions of the cervix (CIN I)

Forty-one patients with low grade cervical dysplasia (CIN I) were examined using a polymerase chain reaction to establish the relationship between human papillomavirus (HPV) specific genome and progressive potential of intra-epithelial dysplasia. Thirty-one (75 per cent) of patients had human papillomavirus sequences. HPV 6/11 was detected in 19 cases, while 12 had the 'high risk' HPV type 16. Twenty-seven patients were monitored for 1 year without treatment to study the progressive potential of the cervical lesion. We observed that patients carrying HPV 16 change more readily to high grade dysplasia (CIN II or III) than patients with (or without) HPV 6/11.