In pregnant women with HIV-1 infection the level of plasma HIV-1 RNA predicts the risk but not the timing of transmission of HIV-1 to their infants.

The Roche PGMY primer-based research prototype line blot assay (PGMY-LB) is a convenient tool in epidemiological studies for the detection and typing of human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA. This assay has been optimized and is being commercialized as the Linear Array HPV genotyping test (LA-HPV). We assessed the agreement between LA-HPV and PGMY-LB for detection and typing of 37 HPV genotypes in 528 anogenital samples ( Infection by human papillomavirus (HPV) causes squamous intraepithelial lesions and invasive cancer of the uterine cervix and anus (3). HPV testing relies on the detection and analysis of viral DNA. Epidemiological studies and vaccine clinical trials require reliable and reproducible identification and genotyping of genital HPV infections. Since only a fraction of the 40 HPV genotypes infecting the anogenital tract are associated with malignant lesions, the detection method has to identify types individually. Specific genotyping also provides information on mixed HPV infections (26). Type-specific PCR assays are impractical for epidemiological studies because of the multiplicity of relevant genotypes infecting the anogenital tract. Consensus PCR assays that target conserved regions of the HPV genome have been devised to amplify all relevant genital types in one reaction, with analysis of amplicons by direct sequencing, restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis, or type-specific hybridization.The most common PCR methods use the consensus primer set MY09/MY11/HMB01 (20, 25), GP5ϩ/GP6ϩ (9, 21), PGMY09/ PGMY11 (13,34), or SPF10 (30,34). Convenient assays for detection and typing of HPV have been developed for all of these primer sets. HPV amplicons generated by PGMY or MY primers can easily be detected and typed by a nonisotopic

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A reliable phylogeny relating the major groups of Galliformes was sought in order to shed light on an unusual case of coupled amino acid replacements in the lysozymes c of these birds. The New World quail and the African guinea fowl share a unique trio of amino acids at three internal positions but have been separated phylogenetically by the majority of trees based on morphological characters. Alternative hypotheses based on molecular data have suggested an arrangement that would be more parsimonious with regard to the lysozyme data. The entire mitochondrial cytochrome b gene (1,143 bp) was amplified via the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and sequenced for nine galliforms and a representative anseriform to provide DNA sequence data for a phylogenetic reconstruction. The mode and tempo of change in these sequences were analyzed to determine the characters most appropriate for phylogenetic reconstruction. Our results place the New World quail outside all other representative game birds except the cracids. Although in conflict with various morphological analyses, this finding is consistent with the results of DNA-DNA hybridization studies. A model to account for the coupled replacements in the lysozymes is presented. Our results also suggest a rapid but ancient radiation among the Galliformes such that the majority of cytochrome b sequence differences among taxa have accumulated on the terminal branches of the reconstructed phylogenetic trees.

Infection with a group of high-risk human papillomaviruses (HPV) has been identified as the cause of cervical cancer; thus, high-risk HPV testing is being incorporated into cervical cancer screening to improve cervical cancer prevention. Recently released U.S. guidelines recommend cotesting with HPV assays and cytology (1) as an alternative to the use of cytology alone. Moreover, primary stand-alone HPV testing is being introduced in multiple regions (2), including the United States (3). As a major advantage, HPV testing is more sensitive than cytology alone, and a negative HPV test result provides prolonged reassurance against cervical cancer, permitting the safe lengthening of screening intervals (4, 5).As a disadvantage, HPV testing is less specific than cytology, and optimal management is unclear for some of the nonnormal cytology/HPV combined results that occur with HPV testing, whether in the context of cotesting or primary HPV testing followed by cytology triage of HPV-positive women (6, 7). One prominent issue, that of HPV-positive/cytology-negative results, i.e., the finding of positive HPV test results when cytology result is negative, is common in absolute terms. For example, HPV-positive/cytology-negative results were found in nearly 4% of the cotest results in a recent large series of approximately 1 million women age 30 to 64 years at Kaiser Permanente Northern California (KPNC) (8, 9).The decision of how to manage HPV-positive/cytology-negative results is not straightforward. Recently, U.S. consensus guideline groups have issued recommended management strategies based on comparisons of the risks of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade 3 (CIN3) or cancer (CIN3ϩ, including adenocarcinoma in situ). These consensus guidelines form the basis for the consistent management of women with similar risks. Specifically, for women with HPV-positive/cytology-negative results, the attendant risk is not quite high enough for immediate colposcopy (1, 10). In comparison, immediate colposcopy is recommended for cytologically evident HPV infection (HPV-positive atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance [ASC-US] or lowgrade squamous intraepithelial lesion [LSIL]) (10). Cytologically evident HPV infection confers a 5-year risk of CIN3ϩ that is only slightly higher than that for HPV-positive/cytology-negative results. However, referring all women with HPV-positive/cytologynegative results would more than double the number of colposcopic procedures, and many of those women would not yet have colposcopically diagnosable lesions (8).Thus, the guidelines recommend managing HPV-positive/cy-