Adcock R, et al. - Given the low specificity of human papillomavirus (HPV) testing, which provides a much more sensitive method of detection for high-grade lesions than cytology, researchers sought to quantitate the improvement in its specificity via using full HPV genotyping, viral load, and multiplicity of types. In a population-based sample of 47,120 women who were undergoing cervical screening, 15.4% exhibited high-risk HPV. As per a hierarchy of HPV genotypes based on sequentially maximizing PPVs for cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) grade 3 or worse (CIN3+), the most predictive was HPV16>33>31, followed sequentially by HPV18>35>58>45>52>59>51>39>56>68. More risk was evident in correlation with high viral loads for HPV18, 35, 52, and 58 than low viral loads for HPV16, 31, and 33. CIN3+ seemed to be significantly more related with high viral load for HPV16 than low viral load. These findings suggest an important predictive value of HPV genotype and viral load, but not multiplicity of HPV infections, for CIN2+ and CIN3+.