Use of modified fine needle aspiration for study of glomerular pathology in human kidneys

In routine fine needle aspiration (FNA) of the kidney, the glomeruli are seldom visualized. They appear as multi-layered, cellular conglomerates and, therefore, are unsuitable for morphological analysis. A novel plasma-clot technique for collection of glomeruli from FNA samples was used in a study of 6 native and 24 transplanted human kidneys with suspected glomerular lesions. This technique produced a satisfactory yield of well preserved glomeruli and enabled the identification of glomerular pathology with the accuracy comparable to that of renal core biopsy. The FNA plasma clot method may prove useful in the study of glomerular pathology under conditions where the use of percutaneous biopsy is conventionally limited or avoided.