What is a Kidney Biopsy?

Dr. Jared Hassler, Renal Pathologist & Associate Professor at Temple University

BIO

I was diagnosed with IgA nephropathy in 2001 after a routine health screening to qualify to serve as a missionary for my church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) showed I had a lot of blood and protein in my urine. While I had previously thought about medicine as a career, my diagnosis and disease cemented my desire to become a medical doctor. I obtained my B. S. undergraduate degree for chemistry from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. I also met my wife and married her while we both went to college there. I then obtained my medical degree from the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis, TN. During my third year of medical school, my kidneys finally failed and I was started on hemodialysis and then quickly switched over to peritoneal dialysis. My wife donated a kidney to me in June of 2011 and I was able to graduate from medical school on time (this did require me to perform medical school rotations while doing peritoneal dialysis). I then went on to match into a pathology residency at the University of Texas Southwestern in 2016. I continued my training by completing a fellowship in renal pathology and transplant pathology there the next year. Finally, I came to Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia and I have been an attending pathologist for the last three years and enjoying working closely with the nephrologists, transplant surgeons, and many other departments to help patients with kidney disease and other medical disease continue to survive and thrive.

SESSION DESCRIPTION

This session will explain and review the process of rendering a diagnosis on kidney biopsy and the terms that are used and what they mean for patients.