[Histology and more-modern nephropathology]

Renal biopsy remains the gold standard for diagnosing kidney disease; it is performed in accordance with generally accepted clinical indications and evaluated using well-established histopathological techniques. This is usually done by specialized renal pathology departments, which have the necessary special techniques at their disposal, such as special staining, immunofluorescence or immunohistology, and, above all, electron microscopy, which are not available at all pathology institutes. In addition to classic histology-based analysis methods, new modern complementary methods are increasingly being developed, including molecular and digital techniques, which are intended to enable more precise, pathogenetically oriented diagnosis, better prognosis assessment, and, increasingly, therapy-guided decisions. As in medicine as a whole, trends are moving away from classic, purely morphological assessments toward integrated, digital, and molecular diagnostics, which are more accurate, improve prognoses, and enable more targeted therapies.