Analysis of nuclear findings in human papilloma virus infected cells

To diagnose human papilloma virus (HPV) infection by cervical cytology, we classified dyskaryotic cell nuclear findings, and examined HPV capsid antigen positive rates.We also tried the blind test based on nuclear findings with high positive rates, and examined the possibility of diagnosis. Detection of capsid antigen (CA) was performed by the immunoperoxidase method after de-staining Papanicolaou preparations. The nuclear findings in dyskaryotic cells in ten cases of dysplasia with HPV CA showed a positive rate for homogeneous nuclei (HN) of33.2%and inclusion-like body bearing nuclei (IB) of 48.4%.The positive rates for HN and IB were higher than for fine (2.4%) or coarse (1.2%) chromatin nuclei.IB hyperchromatic (IB-H: 50.3%) and brownish (IB-B: 56.4%) nuclei had high positive rates for HPV CA. In the blind test, we suspected HPV infection when HN and IB-H were observed in the same preparation.Twentythree of the 33 cases of dysplasia were suspected of HPV infection.HPV CA was detected in 19 (82.6%) of these 23 cases.IB-B was also present in 14 of the 23 cases, and 13 (92.9%) were positive for HPV CA. Based on these results, the appearances of HN, IB-H and IB-B appeared to be important findings for the diagnosis of HPV infection.