Diagnostic Electron Microscopy

Although the impact of electron microscopy on biomedical research is undeniable, diagnostic applications have only recently become well established. The science of electron optics led to the first practical electron microscopes in the 1930s and published papers describing the ultrastructure of biological specimens were almost commonplace by the 1950s (Peven and Gruhn 1985). Originally it was assumed that fastidious attention to fixation was imperative and that specimens which had been treated suboptimally were useless. It gradually became clear, however, that diagnostically useful information could be obtained from tissues that had first been routinely handled for light microscopy. The technique is now regarded as an indispensable adjunct to light microscopy for the interpretation of renal biopsies and the histogenetic diagnosis of tumours.