Confirmation of genital herpes simplex viral infection by an immunoperoxidase technique
Anderson, G.H.; Matisic, J.P.; Thomas, B.A.
Acta Cytologica 29(5): 695-700
1985
ISSN/ISBN: 0001-5547 PMID: 2413672 Document Number: 243968
Over the 12-month period from April 1984 to April 1985, 512,000 gynecologic (Papanicolaou) smears were examined in the Provincial Screening Program in British Columbia [Canada]. During this time, 307 patients were found to have smears that contained cells consistent with, or suggestive of a herpes simplex viral (HSV) infection. The Papanicolaou-stained smears from these 307 cases were subsequently restained, without prior destaining, using an immunoperoxidase technique specific for type 2 HSV (HSV-2) and cross reactive with HSV-1. Of the 205 smears containing cells considered to be consistent with a herpes infection, 187 were positive using the immunoperoxidase technique. Of the 102 smears showing reactive cell changes though unlikely to be caused by an HSV infection, only 5 were positive using the immunoperoxidase technique. The results show that the immunoperoxidase technique is a rapid and reliable method of confirming a suspected diagnosis of herpetic infection and that it is particularly useful in those patients in whom the Papanicolaou smear findings are equivocal.