The Tehran University of Medical Sciences Nuclear Medicine Research Center received its preliminary approval on February 28, 2006, and final approval on April 26, 2008. However, the center has been operational for over half a century, since 1965.

  Introduction

In Iran, the use of radioactive materials in medicine began in 1960 at the Central Covenant Laboratory in the Faculty of Sciences, University of Tehran. This was initiated with the measurement of radioactive iodine in 24-hour urine samples using a device equipped with four Geiger-Müller tubes around the urine container. Approximately a year later, in 1961, thyroid scanning was performed using a gamma camera donated to Razi Hospital and thyroid hormone measurements in the blood were conducted by Dr. Sadegh Nizam Mafi, a professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at Tehran University's Medical School, in the basement of Razi Hospital, formerly a pool house of the late Haj Mohtasham al-Sultan Esfandiary. Around the same time, Dr. Houshang Dolatabadi in Tehran collected equipment for measuring the absorption of Iodine-131 in the thyroid in his private clinic. Shortly thereafter, Dr. Rasoul Baraket founded and developed a nuclear medicine laboratory at Shiraz University. In 1965, with a donation from Masoumeh Gharagozlou from her late husband Ebrahim Gharagozlou's estate, the Nuclear Medicine and Endocrine Research Center of Tehran University was established and equipped, and its development continued until 1971 to reach its current form. It was the first building in the area, later followed by the construction of Shariati Hospital. Dr. Sadegh Nizam Mafi, who also managed the university's Department of Internal Diseases, led the center until 1979. After his retirement, Dr. Mohsen Sagheri took over the management of the center. In 1981, considering the urgent need for training specialists and physicians and acquiring new equipment and methods, the first Nuclear Medicine training group in the country was established at this center, and in 1983, it started accepting the first nuclear medicine assistants. Additionally, in 2007, due to its services, the center was selected as a national scientific hub by the Ministry of Health and Medical Education. Following Dr. Sagheri's retirement, Dr. Mohammad Eftekhari led the center until 2021, and Dr. Alireza Emami Ardakani until 2022.

Dr. Sadegh Nizam Mafi - the founder of nuclear medicine in Iran