摘要：Introduction : Cervical cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer in women worldwide.Cervical cancer kills more women in India than anywhere in the world.There is good evidence that HPV infction precedes the development of carcinoma cervix by a number of decades and that persistent infection with HPV is necessary for the development and progression of pre-cancerous lesions of cervix to cancer.This study was carried out to assess the prevalence ofHPV infection in women attending gy neacology OPD in tertiary care hospital and to study sensitivity and specificity ofPap smear in detecting HPV as compared to HPV DNA PCR.Material & Methods : This was a Hospital based Observational study in w hich all women visiting gyneacology OPD with gyneacological complaints were included in the study.A total of one thousand women were screened for HPV with pap smears and HPV DNA PCR test.Results : Out ofthe total of 1000 women tested,283 (28.3%) were found to be positive for HPV using HPV DNA PCR and 77 (7.7%) tested positive on PAP smear examination.Highest prevalence (31.2%) ofHPV infection was seen in marriage age group of 16- 20 and higher prevalence (57.1%) of HPV infection was also seen in women having more than 3 children.Pap smear was found to be 16.6% sensitive and 95% specific,w hereas Positive Predictive Value and Negative Predictive Value was found to be 61 % and 74% respectively.Discussion : The study reveals HPV prevalence rate of 28.3% in w omen attending gynacology OPD of a tertiary care hospital and also prevalence of HPV was found to be highest in sexully active idividuals with parity of 3 more.These results are in agreement to many published national and international studies [12,13,14].The study results also indicate lower sensitivity and higher specificity of Pap smear in detecting HPV infection,however it still remains the most important practicably available test in early detection of cervical carcinoma.
