Human papillomavirus genotype distribution among French women with and without cervical abnormalities

Objective To assess human papillomavirus (HPV) prevalence and distribution among French women with normal and pathologic cytology findings. Methods A genomic DNA microarray assay enabling the detection of 35 different HPV genotypes was used for in vitro diagnosis, as a complement to Papanicolaou screening, to test 785 women who attended the gynecology department of a hospital in Lyon, France. Results Pathologic and normal cytology findings were obtained for 260 (33.1%) and 302 (38.5%) of the 785 women, respectively, whereas 223 (28.4%) results were inconclusive. HPV infection and multiple infection were significantly more prevalent ( P < 0.001) in the population with pathologic findings (90.0% and 41.9%, respectively) than in the population with normal cytology findings (48.3% and 20.2%, respectively). Overall, the 4 most frequent HPV genotypes were HPV‐16 (14.8%), HPV‐53 (9.0%), HPV‐31 (8.7%), and HPV‐51 (7.5%), whereas HPV‐18 (3.8%), HPV‐6 (2.9%), and HPV‐11 (0.4%) were less common. The HPV genotypes included in the quadrivalent vaccination had a prevalence of 20.6% among all women and 30.4% among those with pathologic findings. Conclusion The present data indicate a reduced direct impact of HPV vaccination in the study population owing to a low prevalence of HPV‐18 and a high prevalence of HPV‐53, HPV‐31, and HPV‐51.