Detection and typing of human papillomaviruses in cervical smears by an original application of the polymerase chain reaction.

The detection and typing of human papillomaviruses on cervical smears were performed by means of a new application of the polymerase chain reaction allowing easier and faster detection of the amplification product. This application consisted of a combination of two series of amplifications and the use of primers labelled with biotin and with 125 iodine on a reporter group for the second amplification. The final amplification product was detected by counting the radioactivity after incubation of the media in avidin-coated tubes.

[Peroperative colposcopic examination of conization tissue. Determination of the complete or incomplete nature of the cone].

The authors describe an original technique which makes it possible for them to determine during the operation whether conisation has been complete or incomplete. The tissue removed is examined during the operation colposcopically after it has been stained with an aqueous solution of toluidine colour blue. Pathological epithelium can be recognized easily and it is possible to measure the distance between the edge of this epithelium and the tissue that has been removed.

[Comparative epidemiologic study of 120 patients with condylomatous lesions and 120 control patients].

The authors compared 120 women who had condylomata with 120 controls. The patients were more frequently single or divorced than the controls. Age at first sexual intercourse was the same in the patients and in the controls, but the total number of sexual partners was higher in the patients than in the controls.

[Histological aspects of lesions of the cervix uteri correlated with different types of human papillomavirus].

Cervical biopsies from 66 women presenting an abnormal smear, with HPV related features were studied and histologic features were correlated to the HPV type, as determined by molecular hybridisation studies. HPV DNA sequences were evidenced in 13 of 19 lesions corresponding to exophytic or flat condyloma (HPV type 16 in seven cases, HPV type 11 in four cases, as yet uncharacterized HPV types, HPV X, in two cases). Fourty biopsies were histologically interpreted as CIN, on the basis of atypical mitotic figures (AMF) and/or basal-parabasal cell atypia.