Low Rate of Adequacy of Percutaneous Kidney Biopsy Associated with Lack of On-site Microscopic Examination
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A percutaneous renal biopsy is an essential tool used for diagnosis, prognosis, and guiding the management of many glomerular diseases. For a thorough evaluation of native renal biopsy samples, it must be examined by light microscopy looking at the overall tissue architecture including the four renal components (glomeruli, tubules, interstitium, and blood vessels), immunofluorescence looking for the composition of immune deposits and electron microscopy looking at the ultrastructure of deposits. Therefore, an adequate biopsy sample is required for the provision of accurate diagnosis by the reporting pathologist. Different studies have used different criteria to define the adequacy of the native renal biopsy sample and look at factors that may improve the yield of the biopsy while maintaining a low rate of complications. We carried out a quality improvement project to assess the percentage of adequate percutaneous native kidney biopsy performed at our hospital where on-site microscopic examination of samples is not available, and to examine the relationship between the adequacy of the sample and that of the specific variables.