Diagnostic Electron Microscopy Services for Biomedical Diagnostics & Research, Inc.

All of the following tissues for TEM analysis should be pre-fixed in glutaraldehyde fixative prior to shipment. Charges for EM analyses are provided upon request.

Microvillous Inclusion Disease: This disorder is also known as congenital/familial microvillous atrophy or Davidson's Disease. It is an autosomal recessive disorder that presents clinically from birth as severe intractable secretory diarrhea. Definitive diagnosis depends on the ultrastructural demonstration of intracytoplasmic microvillous inclusions and poorly developed brush-border microvilli of intestinal epithelial cells of the small and large intestine.

Confirmation of Infectious Agents in Tissues: Histologic, histochemical and immunofluorescent diagnosis of infectious organisms are sometimes equivocal. Electron microscopy can confirm the viral, bacterial, fungal or parasitic nature of the suspected pathogen.

Renal Diseases: Documentation of the pathologic TEM changes in renal biopsies is provided. All one micron sections, grids and electron micrographs (~ 20) are sent to the pathologist for integration with other laboratory findings.

Bullous Diseases of Skin: Electron microscopy is used to identify the location of the separation of the epidermis from the dermis (above or below the basal lamina). The presence or absence of anchoring fibrils are also documented.

Whipple's Disease: Electron microscopy is used to identify the characteristic granulo-fibrillar and fibrillar inclusions that represent the cell wall remains of incompletely digested intracellular bacteria.

Lysosomal Storage Diseases: The characteristic inclusions found within the lysosomes of lymphocytes, endothelial cells, pericytes, smooth muscle, striated muscle, nervous tissue and epithelial cells from the kidney are used to classify the specific groups of storage diseases.

Congenital Myopathies: Various congenital muscle diseases (e.g. nemaline myopathy, fingerprint body myopathy, mitochondrial myopathy) can be easily identified by their characteristic ultrastructural features.

Immotile Cilia Syndrome including Kartagener's Syndrome: Nasal, tracheal and bronchial brushings are evaluated on high power electron micrographs for the absence of one or more of the following parts of the cilium: inner dynein arms, outer dynein arms (includes the stubby variant of the outer arm defect), nexin links, radial spokes, central sheath and central microtubules. The normal "9 + 2" pattern is documented to rule out transposition defects. Abnormal ciliary orientation may be a cause of primary ciliary dyskinesia. Therefore, ciliary orientation is also evaluated on low power electron micrographs.