Human papillomavirus testing

doi:10.1136/bmj.323.7304.109

BMJ 2001;323:109 ( 14 July )

Letters

Human papillomavirus testing

Authors' comments

Effectiveness of testing for high risk HPV for triage of low grade abnormal smears is being assessed in TOMBOLA trial

Authors' comments

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR $---$ In This Week in the BMJ of 14 April our study of human papillomavirus testing and the management of women with mildlyabnormal cervical smears is described as an NHS pilot¹; itwas not. In the accompanying editorial Manos expressed surprisethat we advised caution in the clinical use of this test despiteevidence for its role in managing women with borderline cervicalsmears.² We intended the context of our advice to be that ofour paper: the management of women with borderline or mildly dyskaryoticsmears.

As we stated, although there is evidence from the United States that human papillomavirus testing is useful in triaging theequivalent of borderline change, such testing has limited potentialin triaging the equivalent of mild dyskaryosis (because of highpositivity for papillomavirus (83%)).³ Caution would seem reasonableif these two types of mild abnormality are being considered together(as in the . . . [Full text of this article]