The lift technique: forty years of experience at the department of pathology, Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh.

Despite the widespread utilization of immunohistochemical stains in pathologic practice, virus identification remains a challenge. In our institution, electron microscopy combined with the lift technique has been utilized for 40 years as a reliable diagnostic tool where a question of viral infection is raised by light microscopic observation and could not be otherwise confirmed. The combination of light microscopic and ultrastructural methods has allowed us to examine individual cells suspicious for harboring viral particles previously identified on a hematoxylin-eosin stained tissue section. In this review we describe the lift technique in detail with our modifications in the hope that the use of lift technique in these uncommon but specific circumstances will prove clinically valuable.