Clinica Villela Pedras Centro

# The First Nuclear Medicine Clinic in Brazil

The Nuclear Medicine Clinic Villela Pedras carries in its name much of the history of nuclear medicine in Brazil. This history begins in 1954, when the young Dr. José Augusto Villela Pedras, after completing his studies and having worked as a resident fellow at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York (Presbyterian Hospital), obtained his American Board of Radiology certification in Tampa, Florida. Medicine was evolving rapidly and a new field was opening with the advent of radiotherapy and the application of radioisotopes in medicine. Upon returning to Brazil, Dr. José Augusto Villela Pedras suggests to his longtime friend, Dr. Costa Júnior, the opening of the first nuclear medicine service in Brazil, the Costa Júnior Radiotherapy and Nuclear Medicine Clinic. This clinic would become the embryo of what is today the Villela Pedras Nuclear Medicine Clinic, which took on this name after Dr. José Augusto Villela Pedras's sons joined the institution. Much has changed since then. The clinic has grown in usable space and service capacity. It currently has 14 modern devices, divided among units in the Center, Leblon, Campo Grande, and Petrópolis.

## Technological Leadership

The effort to maintain technological leadership has been present since its opening in 1954, with the acquisition of thyroid imaging devices—the first system in a private clinic in Brazil—and later with color scintillators (the first in Brazil) and tomographic gamma cameras (Informatec), also the first in Brazil. Currently, the clinic has several gamma cameras, including devices dedicated to functional cardiac studies, having recently acquired the most modern SPECT equipment in nuclear cardiology.