Manuel Dias de Abreu

Manuel Dias de Abreu (b. São Paulo, Brazil, January 4th, 1894; d. Rio de Janeiro, January 30th, 1962) was a Brazilian physician and scientist, the inventor of abreugraphy, a rapid radiography of the lungs for screening tuberculosis. Landmark buildings Edifício Italia (at left) and Copan (curved façade at center), in São Paulo Downtown. ... January 4 is the 4th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1894 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... Ipanema beach Cristo Redentor A NASA satellite image of Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro (meaning River of January in Portuguese) is the name of both a state and a city in southeastern Brazil. ... January 30 is the 30th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1962 was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... A physician is a person who practices medicine. ... This article is about the profession. ... An inventor is a person who creates new inventions, typically technical devices such as mechanical, electrical or software devices or methods. ... Chest radiography showing advanced bilateral pulmonary tuberculosis. ... Radiography is the creation of radiographs, photographs made by exposing a photographic film or other image receptor to X-rays. ... The heart and lungs (from an older edition of Grays Anatomy) The lung is an organ belonging to the respiratory system and interfacing to the circulatory system of air-breathing vertebrates. ... Tuberculous lungs show up on an X-ray image Tuberculosis is an infection with the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which most commonly affects the lungs (pulmonary TB) but can also affect the central nervous system (meningitis), lymphatic system, circulatory system (miliary TB), genitourinary system, bones and joints. ...

Abreu got his M.D. in medicine at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in 1914. Shortly afterwards, he travelled to France, where he first worked in the service of Dr. Louis Gaston, at the Nouvel Hôpital de la Pitié, in 1915. Charged with photographing surgical pathology specimens, Abreu quickly developed new and better devices and methods for this. In 1916, Abreu started to work at the Hôtel-Dieu and had his first contact with medical radiography, which had been discovered by the German physicist Wilhelm Röntgen just 20 years before. He became the director of the laboratory of radiology of the hospital in substitution to the previous director, Dr. Jean Guilleminot, who was conscripted to fight in the First World War. It was in this position, by suggestion of Guilleminot, that Abreu became interest in fluorography, or the photographic recording of fluoroscopic x-ray images of the lungs. He soon was able to perceive the immense diagnostic value of these images for tuberculosis and other pulmonary affections, and he began his photographic studies of the lungs in 1918, now at the Laennec Hospital (also in France). The Medicinæ Doctor or Doctor of Medicine (M.D. or D.M.) is a doctorate level degree held by medical doctors. ... Medicine is a branch of health science concerned with maintaining health and restoring it by treating disease. ... 1914 is a common year starting on Thursday. ... Radiography is the creation of radiographs, photographs made by exposing a photographic film or other image receptor to X-rays. ... Wilhelm Röntgen Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen (March 27, 1845 – February 10, 1923) was a German physicist, of the University of Würzburg, who, on November 8, 1895, produced wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation that are now known as x-rays or Röntgen Rays. ... Radiology is the branch of medical science dealing with the medical use of x-ray machines or other such radiation devices. ... Ypres, 1917, in the vicinity of the Battle of Passchendaele. ... The fluoroscope is a medical instrument used by physicians to view the internal organs of the body best described as a motion X-ray. Like an x-ray machine it takes an image of the interior of the body, but unlike the x-ray it uses a powerful radiation source... Lens and mounting of a large format camera Photography is the process of making pictures by means of the action of light. ... 1918 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ...

Abreu's first landmark contribution to the radiography of soft tissues (until then not much utilized as a diagnostic radiographical method, due to the low definition of images) was to develop a x-ray densitometry method, by comparing the degree of white density of biological tissues to water's and to other highly dense references, such as bones, and to point out its value for radiodiagnosis. In 1921 he first published his pioneering work on the radiological interpretation of pulmonary injuries in pleuropulmonary tuberculosis, titled "Le Radiodiagnostique dans la Tuberculose Pleuro-Pulmonaire". This and his method of pulmonary densitometry gave him an invitation to join the prestigious Académie de Médicine de Paris. Principle of spot light densitometry Densitometry is the quantitative measurement of optic density in light-sensitive materials, such as photographic film, due to exposure to light. ... 1921 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ...

In 1922 Abreu returned to Brazil and accepted a post as the head of the X-Ray Department at the Federal public health service for the prophylaxis of tuberculosis in Rio de Janeiro. The city was at that time going through a devastating epidemics of tuberculosis. He intensified research on thoracic radiography for the purpose of early diagnosis of tubercular lesions, but the results were initially desencouraging, due to the low quality of fluroscopic images at the time. Finally, in 1935, as a result of the improvements of fluoroscopic and photographic devices and techniques, he took again his experiences in the old German Hospital of Rio de Janeiro, and was then able to conceive a cheap and fast method to take small (50 or 100 mm) photographic plates of the lungs in a single roll of film, which became a standard tool for an easier diagnosis of tuberculosis for many decades to come, with a corresponding impact on its prophylaxis and cure. 1922 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... Prophylaxis refers to any medical or public health procedure whose purpose is to prevent, rather than treat or cure, disease. ... An epidemic is generally a widespread disease that affects many individuals in a population. ... 1935 was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Abreu's ideas for a new mass screening radiography apparatus was made true by the construction of a first device by the Lohner House, a representative of Siemens in Rio de Janeiro. The first service of Thoracic Census was established in 1937. The first results indicated the usefulness of abreugraphy: the screening of 758 asymptomatic and apparently sane individuals in July 1937 revealed that 44 of them had already tuberculosis lung lesions, which allowed for early treatment and a better survival. Mobile units were also employed, and soon abreugraphy became a mandatory examination for anyone applying to a public job or school in Brazil. By the end of the 40s, Dr. Manuel de Abreu could present the first positive impact of mass screening on tuberculosis mortality. Siemens AG is the name of a German electrical and telecommunications company, founded as a telegraph equipment manufacturer by Werner von Siemens and Johann Georg Halske Siemens is a German family name carried by Peter von Siemens, Werner von Siemens, Wilhelm von Siemens [1] as Telegraphen-Bauanstalt von Siemens & Halske...

The invention was named abreugrafia in his honor by the Society of Medicine and Surgery of Rio de Janeiro in 1936. Abreugraphy was largely discontinued as a mandatory screening tool in Brazil in the 1970s, after antibiotic treatment and public health programs greatly decreased the incidence of the disease, and also out of fear of unnecessary exposure to x-rays, particularly in children and pregnant woman. The World Health Organization recommended its discontinuance and the Brazilian health service stopped to pay for it in 1999. 1936 was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... An antibiotic is a drug that kills or slows the growth of bacteria. ... For other meanings of the acronym WHO, see WHO (disambiguation) WHO flag Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, the World Health Organization (WHO) is an agency of the United Nations, acting as a coordinating authority on international public health. ...

Abreugraphy was not used in other countries so intensively as in Brazil and a few other Latin America countries. It received several different names, according to the country where it was adopted: mass radiography, miniature chest radiograph (United Kingdom and USA), roentgenfluorography (Germany), radiophotography (France), schermografia (Italy), photoradioscopy (Spain) and photofluorography (Sweden). The importance of abreugraphy was outlined by the creation of the Brazilian Society of Abreugraphy, in 1957, and the publication of the Revista Brasileira de Abreugrafia.

Abreu was also one of the first radiographists to develop quantitative methods to evaluate the area of internal anatomical structures and to use it in medical diagnosis, an approach which he used to quantitate images of the mediastinum, and which he named radiogeometry. His ideas where collected and published in 1928 in his book "Essai sur une nouvelle Radiologie Vasculaire". Furthermore, Abreu was instrumental in developing new techniques for x-ray planar tomography of the thorax using the simultaneous exposure of several films, as well as the use of tracheobronchic washout as technique for precise detection of Koch bacilli in infected individuals. Diagnosis (from the Greek words dia = by and gnosis = knowledge) is the process of identifying a disease by its signs, symptoms and results of various diagnostic procedures. ... The mediastinum is a non-delineated group of structures in the thorax (chest), surrounded by loose connective tissue. ... Tomography refers to imaging by sections or sectioning. ...

Manuel Dias de Abreu lectured in the field of medical radiology in innumerable Brazilian and foreign scientific institutions, and was a member of the most important medical organizations of the world. He was awarded the French Légion d'Honneur and several other scientific prizes, among them the Gold Medal of the American College of Chest Physicians, in 1950 and the Gold Medal of the Argentinian Radiological Society, in 1953. French Legion of Honor The Légion dhonneur (Legion of Honor (AmE) or Legion of Honour (ComE)) is an Order of Chivalry awarded by the President of France. ... 1950 was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Besides several books on medicine, Abreu published also two poetical works: Substâncias, which was illustrated for famous Brazilian painter Emiliano Di Cavalcanti and Poemas sem Realidade, illustrated by himself.

Manuel Dias de Abreu is considered one of the most important Brazilian physicians, side by side with Carlos Chagas, Vital Brazil and Osvaldo Cruz. Carlos Chagas Carlos Justiniano Ribeiro Chagas (born July 9, 1879, Oliveira, Minas Gerais, Brazil; died November 8, 1934, Rio de Janeiro), was a Brazilian physician. ... For a place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, see Vital Brazil, Brazil. ...

Tragically (and ironically, for a pneumologist), Dr Abreu died in 1962 from lung cancer, probably caused by his long habit of smoking. The incidence of lung cancer is highly correlated with smoking. ... For information about smoking tobacco, see tobacco smoking. ...

Quote

The value of life is within the value of science, outside life, science has no finality.

External links

Abreugrafia. Brazilian Inventors Network. In Portuguese.