Women who are infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) are at high risk of human papillomavirus-persistent infections. Invasive cervical cancer is listed among the illnesses associated with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. The objective of the current study was to investigate whether, in South Africa, the accuracy of abnormal cytology confirmed by a histological diagnosis using loop electrosurgical excision procedure (LEEP) is affected by knowledge of the woman's HIV serostatus.
Of 7648 biopsy specimens, 941 were LEEPs indicated by a cytology report of low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion or high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion. A total of 618 specimens (65.7%) were from HIV-uninfected women and 323 specimens (34.3%) were from HIV-infected women. Those women with an unknown pre-LEEP cytological diagnosis were excluded from the study.
The total prevalence of HIV infection among the 7648 patients was 18.6%, reflecting its prevalence in the general population of women aged 15 to 49 years. The rate of HIV infection among 3462 women with invasive cervical cancer was 10.7%. The overall prevalence of preinvasive lesions was 73.9% in HIV-infected women compared with 50.3% in women not infected with HIV (P<.0001). The concordance and discordance rates between cytology and histology were similar in uninfected and infected women (P =.93 and P =.18, respectively). Among HIV-infected women, 79.1% of discordant results were due to cytological overdiagnosis; among HIV-negative women, 86.5% of discordant results were due to underdiagnosis (P<.0001).
It appears that the finding of a higher prevalence of preinvasive lesions combined with the knowledge of a patient's HIV-positive serostatus prompts more cytological overdiagnosis, thereby resulting in avoidable LEEP interventions.