[Introduction to renal pathology]

In recent decades, nephropathology has developed worldwide as a subspeciality of pathology, which requires special methodological and technical equipment to process the material and specific clinical and pathological expertise to interpret the findings. These special requirements mean that nephropathology is not available at all pathology institutes, but is carried out on a large scale in a few highly specialised centres. The history of nephropathology, or in a narrower sense the specialised histopathological examination of kidney biopsies, began in 1958 with the first use or performance of a kidney biopsy [1]. It thus replaced the practice of urinalysis, which had been common since the Middle Ages, as a diagnostic tool for kidney diseases. Specialised techniques such as immunofluorescence or immunohistology but also electron microscopy are required to assess specific renal changes, for which the examination of renal biopsies is one of the few remaining routine applications today. In Germany and German-speaking countries, the discipline developed thanks to the work of outstanding people in the field of pathology who were primarily involved in this discipline and had the necessary technical and human resources in their laboratories to ensure that these biopsies could be analysed.