The morphology of butchers' warts as related to papillomavirus types

Abstract

Hand warts were studied in 160 butchers. Clinical and histological studies were performed in 190 warts and virological studies in 165 warts from 104 butchers. Since we found almost perfect correlation between the histological pattern and the type of infecting virus, it was possible to evaluate the virus types in a further 39 of 56 butchers without virological studies, on the basis of the histology of the warts. The most common infection was with HPV-2 (human papilloma virus) and HPV-7. Thirty-three butchers were infected with two types of viruses and three butchers with three HPVs. The morphology of warts varied considerably. The majority were similar to verrucae vulgares or verrucae planae. Some deep warts resembled myrmecia-type verrucae plantares. Often, several types of warts coexisted. Some clinical patterns were shown to be preferentially associated with distinct types of papillomaviruses: common warts with HPV-2, HPV-4, or HPV-7, plane and intermediate warts with HPV-3, HPV-10, HPV-28. HPV-7, previously identified for the first time in these butchers, was found to be associated with common warts or common wart-like, papillomatous lesions.

Association of human papillomavirus 7 with warts in toe webs

“…The pathology examination revealed two cases showing VV‐like pathology patterns, six CA‐like pathology patterns and six indeterminate cases (Figs 4 and 5). The most frequent histological findings (in seven of 14) were papillomatosis and acanthosis, heavily stained cells containing medium‐sized keratohyaline granules, and a pronounced hyperkeratosis with parakeratosis, which are histological characteristics of HPV 7 infections 6,7 …”

Novel HPV types present in oral papillomatous lesions from patients with HIV infection

“…Single cases containing HPV 13, 18 and 32 were also reported. HPV 7 was originally isolated from cutaneous warts frequently present on the hands of people handling meat (Jablonska et aL, 1987), and had not been associated with lesions of mucosal origin. The methods for HPV detection applied at the time were Southern-blot hybridization and reverse-blot hybridization.…”

Human Papillomavirus Type 7-Associated Condyloma

“…Since then, the histopathology of HPV-7 infection has only been published for a single case of a common wart and one case of verruca filiformis [6,10]. Under these circumstances, HPV-7-specific histopathologic features are difficult to discern.…”

“…Unfortunately, the current clinical, histopathological and virological evidence does not definitively settle this question. In terms of clinical morphology, HPV-7-associated butcher’s warts were originally denoted as common warts (verruca vulgaris) or common wart-like papillomatous lesions [1,6]. Based on this notion, HPV-7 was previously identified in common warts from 6 fish handlers [7], 1 butcher’s wart and a case of verruca filiformis (a variant of verruca vulgaris) from 2 non-butchers [8].…”