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Effect of glacial acetic acid treatment of cervical ThinPrep specimens on HPV DNA detection with the cobas 4800 HPV test
Author(s) -
McMenamin M.,
McKenna M.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
cytopathology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.512
H-Index - 48
eISSN - 1365-2303
pISSN - 0956-5507
DOI - 10.1111/cyt.12052
Subject(s) - medicine , acetic acid , dna , dna testing , genetics , biology , biochemistry
Background Cytology laboratories in the UK routinely treat unsatisfactory cervical liquid‐based cytology ( LBC ) specimens with glacial acetic acid ( GAA ) to reduce the unsatisfactory rate. However, there is limited published data on the effect of GAA reprocessing on the molecular detection of human papillomavirus ( HPV ). The aim of this study was to assess the impact of GAA treatment of cervical ThinPrep ® samples on HPV detection with the cobas ® 4800 HPV Test (Roche Molecular Systems, Pleasanton, CA , USA). Methods Residual ThinPrep samples ( n = 121) were selected to provide a range of typical cytology results and enrich the study samples for HPV positivity. Specimens were equally split into two fractions: one part treated with 10% GAA and the other part left untreated. All samples were HPV tested using the cobas 4800 HPV Test, which simultaneously detects a total of 14 high‐risk HPV (hr HPV ) genotypes and individually identifies HPV 16 and HPV 18. The HPV positive/negative status of tested samples determined the level of agreement between treated and untreated fractions; one sample failed owing to detection of a clot by the instrument during pipetting, leaving 120 samples in the study. Statistical analysis was performed using an unweighted kappa. Results Analysis of overall HPV positivity showed 97.5% (117/120) agreement between the treated and untreated fractions with a kappa value of 0.95. There were 63/65 (96.9%) concordant HPV positive and 54/55 (98.2%) concordant HPV negative results. In addition to the three discordant results for overall HPV positivity, there were three HPV type‐specific discrepancies giving a total of 114/120 concordant HPV results (95% agreement). Conclusions Glacial acetic acid ( GAA ) treatment of cervical ThinPrep specimens does not have significant adverse affects on HPV detection with the cobas 4800 HPV Test.