Molecular detection of human papillomavirus from abnormal cervical cytology of women attending a tertiary health facility in Ido-ekiti, southwest Nigeria.

BACKGROUND: Human papillomavirus (HPV) has been implicated as one of the principal causes of cervical cancer, which is the second highest cause of cancer deaths among Nigerian women.

OBJECTIVE: This study was aimed at determining the presence of HPV DNA in abnormal cervical cytology of a group of women who were screened using Papanicolaou staining technique.

METHODOLOGY: A total of 200 women attending the Obstetrics and Gynaecology clinic of the Federal Teaching Hospital, Ido-Ekiti, were screened by means of conventional Pap smear screening, while positive samples underwent molecular analyses by means of DNA isolation techniques and polymerase chain reaction (PCR).

RESULT: Results revealed that 14 (7%) of the subjects were positive for abnormal cytology. Abnormalities found among the subjects included: low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (LSIL), which constituted 50% of the total abnormal smears, high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (HSIL) and atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance (ASCUS), which were 28.6% and 21.4%, respectively. Molecular analyses showed that all the samples from abnormal cervical cytology subjected to HPV DNA extraction and gene amplification contained HPV DNA.

CONCLUSIONS: The high prevalence of HPV DNA in abnormal cytology gives credence to the fact that the presence of HPV is a critical indicator of the development of cervical cancer. Thus more effort should be put into vaccine production and distribution in order to reduce the incidence of cervical cancer in Nigeria.