Iran

Masoud Mireskandari, MD, Pathologist
Assistant Professor,
Pathology and Clinical Laboratory Department,
Hasheminejad Kidney Center,
Valiasr Avenue, Vanak Square,
Tehran, Iran

Dear Colleagues,

 I have been seriously engaged in this field since I have got a position in Hasheminejad Kidney Center (HKC), Tehran, Iran, since last February. HKC can be considered unique in its mission in whole the country, because it serves only patients with nephrologic and urologic diseases. It is a referral hospital for complicated cases and usually we can see patients from all corners of country who seeks for last chance in our hospital. Accordingly we encounter frequently in our lab many interesting cases. By effort of my colleague Dr. Mojgan Asgari who is the director of HKC laboratory, a registry of GN cases was developed which now a day encompasses around 1500 cases of primary native kidney GNs. Annually around 350-400 new cases are added to that pool. In addition many urolopathology specimens are also included in our workload. Usually they are prostate needle biopsies, radical nephrectomy, radical prostatectomy and many TURT and bladder biopsy specimens.

Regarding our facilities we are working with minimal equipment and materials. Although the quality of pathology practice including sectioning and staining is much better in compare with average of other centers in Iran, generally one of the problems in pathology practice in Iran is problematic fixation, processing, blocking and sectioning. Actually most pathology technicians learn their practice by a short course (usually two weeks) of teaching by an experienced technician who has learnt their profession in the same way. Lack of theoretical knowledge, lack of continuous education, and lack of resources result are among most influential factors for this shortage.
In addition of routine HE slides we do IF staining in almost all renal biopsy specimens. Quality of IF staining is good and we can rely on it for diagnosis.

Our hospital is affiliated to Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran, and accordingly both of pathologists here in HKC are actively involved in teaching pathology to undergraduate medicine students and pathology assistants. We usually have a PGY 1,2, and 3 pathology assistants in our lab with specific courses in clinical and surgical pathology laboratory. Considering my personal interests and experiences in virtual microscopy and telepathology, I could persuade my colleagues to more active incorporation in development of web based educational courses according to the models I have been presented before.

According to the above mentioned brief introduction I think the grounds for participation of our center in future activities of RPS and inter-institutional relationship between our centers might be find in following objects:

1-       incorporation in activities for new grading, staging, and classification proposals of different types of glomerulonephritis
2-       preparation of web based educational tutorials and self examinations
3-       discussion of interesting cases via internet
4-        improving quality of specimen handling by increasing technicians knowledge through preparation of tutorials and guidelines in appropriate specimen fixation, embedding, sectioning and staining.