Handling and interpretation of the medical renal biopsy

Renal biopsy is the gold standard for diagnosis of kidney disease; indeed, it allows for determination of the type, extent, site, and nature of renal involvement in medical diseases, and it alters the clinical diagnosis in as many as 25-50 % of cases. At the same time, it is a relatively safe procedure with life-threatening complications occurring in less than 0.1 % of biopsies. The diagnosis of renal biopsies is complex, requiring correlation of the findings in three modalities: light, immunofluorescence, and electron microscopy. For that reason, appropriate division and fixation of the renal biopsy is required, and protocols for these processes are provided.