Routine immunofluorescence and light microscopy processing with a single renal biopsy specimen: 18 years' experience in a single centre.

To obtain a correct histological renal diagnosis, two adequate cortical biopsy cylinders are routinely taken for light microscopy and immunohistology in nephrology units. We describe our simple method for light microscopy (LM) study using the same frozen renal material used for immunofluorescence (IF). Of over 2,000 biopsies processed with this method, only three showed thawing artifacts and all occurred when the room temperature was above 30 degrees C. Our 18 years' experience and the large number of biopsies indicate that this method offers an interesting new way to do LM and IF with one biopsy core and could help stimulate etiopathogenic and diagnostic studies in nephrology. The other renal specimen can be used for histological investigation, applying recent molecular biology techniques (PCR, RT-PCR, in situ hybridization).