Prevalence of Anal Human Papillomavirus (HPV) and Performance of Cepheid Xpert and Hybrid Capture 2 (hc2) HPV Assays in South African HIV-Infected Women

Objectives This study investigated anal high-risk HPV (HR-HPV) prevalence in HIV-infected women using the Cepheid Xpert HPV assay and compares its performance with that of Hybrid Capture-2 (hc2). Methods A total of 199 HIV-infected women were recruited from Helen Joseph Hospital, Johannesburg. Stored ThinPrep anal swabs that had previously been tested using hc2 were tested for HPV using Xpert. Results The HR-HPV prevalence by Xpert was 40.8% and similar to hc2 (41.8%) with overall agreement of 86.7%; Cohen's kappa 0.73 (95% CI 0.63-0.82). High grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (HSIL) was associated with increasing number of multiple HPV infection (P < .001). Xpert and hc2 were similarly sensitive (77.4% and 77.4%, respectively) and specific (66.1% and 64.8% respectively) for HSIL detection. HPV16 (OR: 14.0, 95% CI: 3.9-48.0, P < .0001), HPV39/68/56/66 (OR: 4.1, 95% CI: 1.4-12, P = .01) and HPV51/59 (OR: 2.8, 95% CI: 1.1-7.6, P = .04) were independently associated with anal HSIL. Conclusions Xpert HPV typing is a promising anal screening test in HIV-infected women that performs similarly to hc2.