Learn about testing to identify HPV virus

This is an automatically translated article.

The article was professionally consulted by Specialist Doctor I Nguyen Thi Man - Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology - Vinmec Danang International General Hospital. The doctor has more than 10 years of experience in diagnosing, consulting and treating in the field of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
Not all women with genital HPV infection lead to cervical cancer, but prolonged viral infection is believed to be the most important factor leading to cancer. Therefore, screening and testing for HPV plays an important role in the prevention of cervical cancer.

1. Current HPV Tests

HPV tests are essential to confirm HPV infection and identify the type of HPV that is causing the infection.
1.1. Pap test (Papanicolaou) cervical smear smear the cells obtained from the cervix on a slide, stain and examine under the microscope. Pap test helps to screen for early lesions of the cervix due to HPV infection every year, if the result is negative for three consecutive years, it only needs to be repeated every three years.

1.2. Molecular biology test Molecular biology method to detect HPV-specific gene fragment (HPV-DNA) is considered the standard for HPV diagnosis, this test has higher sensitivity and specificity than Pap test , allows HPV type identification, high/low risk HPV grouping and HPV quantification. The following methods can be used:
PCR method – molecular biology test The PCR method allows detection of specific HPV - DNA gene segments with very high sensitivity and specificity, widely used in molecular biology laboratories.
What is real time PCR HPV test? This is a diagnostic tool with high sensitivity, specificity and feasibility in detecting HPV infection and determining HPV type.
Real-time PCR technique compared with PCR has simpler operation and shorter time, higher sensitivity and specificity, avoiding foreign contamination of PCR products leading to false positive results. Specimens used are whole blood or serum stored in tubes without anticoagulant. The real-time kit can be used for both qualitative and quantitative purposes, identifying some of the most common HPV types (from 4-5 types) in the same test. This is the most commonly used HPV test today.
What is Reverse dot blots (molecular hybridization)? This method identifies dozens of different HPV types in the same reaction. A person can be infected with one or be co-infected with multiple types of HPV, as shown by reading the response on the specimen.
Sequencing method (sequencing) This method is currently not a routine HPV test due to the high cost of the test and the failure to detect cases of HPV co-infection in the same reaction.

2. Where is the HPV test?

Real-time PCR HPV genotype technique is one of the modern techniques, performed routinely at Vinmec International General Hospital and has been trusted by many patients. Vinmec is equipped with Realtime PCR machine system - 7500 FASTC Applied Biosystems - Life Technologies - belonging to Thermo Fisher Scientific Corporation (USA), giving very high accuracy test results.
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