The actual choice of the appropriate method will depend on the clinical question and the amount of tissue available. The availability of both methods also provides an excellent reciprocal control in difficult cases. For immunohistochemistry on paraffin sections proteolytic digestion is needed to unmask antigenic epitopes and to remove plasma proteins. The optimal procedure for antigen retrieval and background reduction with proteases has to be determined individually for each antibody. The need of protease digestion will also depend on duration and type of fixation.
Additional antibodies can be necessary for particular cases.
In many cases, it may be necessary to append concluding remarks discussing potential differential diagnoses and integrating morphological changes with clinical information. The following table summarises the recommandations for biopsy handling described here. Standard procedures for renal biopsy handling and processing. The recommendation of procedures is based on the participants' professional experience, and is in line with the literature relevant to the subject. The guidelines have the intention of standardising the way of handling renal biopsies in order to facilitate diagnostic and scientific co-operation between members of the EU concerted action grant.