To investigate the diagnosis value of flow cytometry (FCM) in type 16 and type 18 of human papillomavirus (HPV) infection.

Total of 200 women screened in People’s Hospital of Shenzhen from January 2013 to January 2017 were selected as the research objects, all the subjects were informed with the consent, and were diagnosed by FCM and fluorescent quantitative polymerase chain reaction (FQ-PCR). The diagnosis results of the above two methods were compared.

There was no significant difference in the positive rates of E6 protein between type 16 and type 18 HPV among normal patients and patients in stage Ⅰ with cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) (all P > 0.05 ). The positive rates of HPV detected by FCM in patients with CIN Ⅱ, Ⅲ and cervical cancer were lower than that of the diagnosis of FCM, with significant differences (all P < 0.001). The sensitivity, specific and accurate rates in the diagnosis of patients ≥ CIN Ⅱ cervical lesion degree detected by FCM were 87.5% (35/40), 98.2% (157/160) and 96.0% (192/200), respectively. The sensitivity, specific and accurate rates in the diagnosis of patients ≥ CIN Ⅱ cervical lesion degree detected by FQ-PCR were 85.0% (34/40), 96.9% (155/160) and 94.5% (189/200), respectively. There was no significant differences between the two diagnostic methods (all P > 0.05).

FCM is easy to operate, which could effectively avoid the false positive caused by cross-infection of samples and improve the diagnosis accuracy of HPV infection.