Renal Pathology
The Renal Biopsy Service currently consists of 4 attending pathologists, 1 renal pathology fellow, 1 renal pathology technician, and support staff in the Immunohistochemistry and Electron Microscopy Laboratories and in the administrative offices of UWMC’s pathology departments.
Questions and requests regarding fixatives and histology related technical service requests should be directed to Mr. Richard King, the renal biopsy technician.
Richard King
Renal Technician
Phone: 206.598.4028
Fax: 206.598.8049
Questions and requests regarding electron microscopy should be directed to Mrs. Chiyen Miller, the EM lab head technician.
Chiyen Miller
EM Lab
Phone: 206.598.6411
Fax: 206.598.8049
A renal pathologist is on-call 24/7 at UWMC. We can be reached through the contact information included or by dialing the UWMC paging operator at 206-598-6190.
Sending Specimens
All specimens should be sent to the address below and should be accompanied by the
Consult/Review Service Request Form and one of the following:
Renal Transplant Biopsy Requisition Form or Native Kidney Biopsy Requisition Form
UWMC - Anatomic Pathology
Renal Biopsy Services
1959 NE Pacific Street
BB220D
Seattle, WA 98195
206-598-6400
Please send Saturday deliveries to UWMC Room NW-220
New Services
Immunohistochemical staining for presence of peritubular capillary C4d is now performed routinely on transplant renal biopsies, in view of the growing recognition of the importance of recognition of C4d deposition as a prognostic factor and as a marker of what may be “humoral” rejection. In the past, it was necessary to have frozen tissue to perform this assay using immunofluorescence techniques; we have now developed the capacity to perform immunohistochemical studies on formalin fixed, paraffin embedded transplant biopsies. We have also developed an enhanced immunohistochemical test with greater specificity for the detection of polyoma virus in renal transplant biopsies.
Over the past two years, we have introduced the insertion of key pathology illustrations (histology and electron microscopy) in to our pathology report. We hope to expand our capacity to provide this information to you. We realize that images embedded in our pathology reports will be suboptimal in those copies of the reports that are faxed to the primary referring physician. These images are of better quality in reports sent by mail (typically sent to your referring pathology laboratory).
Service Delivery
To deliver the best service possible, we need to have you provide relevant history forms with the submitted renal biopsies. Most importantly, we need up to date contact information for reaching and for those physicians who provide your coverage after business hours. We make every effort not to disturb you unnecessarily, but we need to be able to reach you with emergent diagnoses such as crescentic glomerulonephritis and/or transplant rejection and/or infection whenever such diagnoses are established. Please let us know if your office or personal telephone numbers and/or pagers have changed, so we many update our internal directories.
Nephrology Days
The Northwest Renal Society has three one day meetings annually, which are held in Seattle and which feature nationally known visiting professors to speak on topics of relevance to the nephrology community. Each Nephrology day begins with one-hour renal pathology conference, in which cases sent to the University of Washington by our referring physicians (you!) are presented and discussed by the nephrologists in attendance as well as the visiting professors. These conference are generally well received and offer a unique opportunity for physicians who otherwise would not have the chance to review the pathology of their cases with us at the microscope to see the pathologic findings in their cases, and discuss interesting, and, at times, problematic issues concerning diagnosis and/or management of their cases with the community as a whole. We actively solicit your cases and your participation in this conference. Please refer to the NW Renal Society website (www.nwrenalsociety.org) for coming events.
UW Medicine Renal Pathology Faculty and Staff
Charles E. Alpers
Attending, Head Renal Pathology
calp@uw.edu
Phone: 206.598.6409
Fax: 206.598.4928
Behzad Najafian
Attending
najafian@uw.edu
Phone: 206.598.0283
Fax: 206.598.5928
Kelly Smith
Attending
kelsmith@uw.edu
Phone: 206.598.6408
Fax: 206.598.5928
Roberto Nicosia
Attending
roberto.nicosia@va.gov
Phone: 206.764.2284
Fax: 206.598.4928
Kotaro Sasaki
Renal Fellow
ksasaki@uw.edu
Phone: 206.598.8100
Fax: 206.598.4928
Richard King
Renal Technician
Phone: 206.598.4028
Fax: 206.598.8049
Chiyen Miller
EM Lab
Phone: 206.598.6411
Fax: 206.598.8049
Jennifer Watt and Bob Underwood
EM Lab
Phone: 206.598.6411
Fax: 206.598.8049