Abstract: Objective To investigate the application of virus load and optimal threshold for the detection of high risk human papillomavirus(HPV) DNA in cervical precancerous lesion. Methods A total of 805 patients without cervical cancer were performed HPV DNA detection and pathological diagnosis through colposcope biopsy. According to the pathological results, the patients were classified into 86 cases without lesion, 492 cases of chronic cervicitis, 117 cases of low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (LSIL)and 110 cases of high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (HSIL). The HPV DNA positive rate in each group was compared, and the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to determine the optimal RLU/CO value of HPV DNA in cervical squamous intraepithelial lesion. Results The positive rates of HPV DNA detection in no lesion group, chronic cervicitis group, LSIL group and HSIL group were 20.93%, 34.96%, 75.21% and 95.45%, and the virus loads (means) of high risk HPV determination results were 0.355 0, 0.455 0, 47.41 and 286.68. The testing results of cervical squamous intraepithelial lesion were ordered according to the virus loads from small to big, and the abnormal detection rates were 8.29%, 24.42%, 48.94%, 59.66% and 68.54%. According to the ROC curve, the optimal RLU/CO value of cervical squamous intraepithelial lesion was 3.155 0, the sensitivity of the point was 82.2%, while the specificity was 73.9%, and the Youden index was 1.561. The optimal RLU/CO value of HSIL was 5.965 0, the sensitivity of the point was 92.0%, while the specificity was 68.8%, and the Youden index was 1.608. Conclusions The virus load of high risk HPV DNA is directly proportional to the positive rate of cervical lesion detection. Increasing the optimal RLU/CO value properly could improve the specificity and decrease the false positivity of cervical squamous intraepithelial lesion.

Key words: Human papillomavirus, High risk, Cervical precancerous lesion