The Characteristics of Human Papillomavirus Infection in Women with Vaginitis and the Correlation with Vaginitis

Abstract

Background: Human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is the main cause of cervical cancer in women and vaginitis may affect HPV infection. In order to determine the characteristics as well as the relationship between HPV Infection and vaginitis, we retrospectively collected and analyzed the data from our hospital.Methods: We retrospectively collected the data of 1330 women who underwent twenty-three HPV DNA quantitative measurement and vaginal microecology examination at the same visit from May 2019 to April 2020 in our hospital.Results: The vaginal discharge infection rate was 37.67% in all cases. The total HPV infection rate in women with vaginitis was 39.60% and HPV58, 52, and 16 had the higher prevalence among 23 HPV types, with infection rates of 10.34%, 6.32% and 6.11% respectively. Single-type infection (77.26%) was more common than multiple-type infection (32%).There appeared the same trend in HPV positive cases and vaginitis, reaching the peak in women aged 31–40 years. Among four types of vaginitis, the HPV infection rates were 45.83%, 40.54%, 37.04% and 30.43% in patients with trichomonas vaginitis(TV) , vulvovaginal candidiasis(VVC), intermediate bacterial vaginitis(IBV)and bacterial vaginitis(BV),respectively. Only26.17% women were infected with HPV in patients with normal vaginal micrabiota. Significant differences were found in HPV infection rate between normal vaginal micrabiota group and different vaginitis (P<0.05). There was a correlation between HPV infection and vaginitis(χ2=31.966,P<0.05；r=0.114, P<0.05).Furthermore, patients with BV showed a higher correlation with HPV infection when compared with other groups (r=0.537, P<0.05).Conclusions: This retrospective study demonstrated that HPV58, 52, and 16 are the most common infection subtypes. Our data provide valuable information for HPV-based screening and prevention strategies for women in vaginitis. The single HPV infection was still very common. There was a correlation between HPV infection and vaginitis and patients with BV showed a higher correlation with HPV infection.