Prevalence of human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA in vocal cords without laryngeal papillomas.

The latent and subclinical infections of human papillomavirus (HPV) have gained more interest following the association of this virus to squamous cell cancer. So far, little is known about the prevalence of latent HPV infections in the larynx. We studied specimens from patients suffering from chronic laryngitis, noduli of polyps of the vocal cords by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Six out of 32 cases (19%) were found to have HPV DNA in the epithelium. The disease itself, sex, age or cigarette smoking were not related to the occurrence of HPV DNA. These results suggest that the number of HPV-positive patients observed might reflect the prevalence of latent HPV infections in the vocal cord mucosa.