NCT HISTORY
Juan Carlos Vázquez García1
In the first statutory session of the society on May 4, 1939, Dr. Alarcon requested authorization for the board of directors to take the necessary steps to publish the first issue of a journal, the official organ of the Society. This notion was approved, together with an additional proposal by Dr. Celis, that all papers published by the journal be first read at the statutory sessions. In the session of July 6 of the same year, Dr. Alarcon presents a budget of $500.00 for the printing of one thousand copies. It was approved that the cost would be covered by the dues of the members in Mexico City. In the session of August 10, 1939, Dr. Alarcon informs that Dr. Gustavo Baz, Rector of the University, authorized the printing of the magazine in the University's printing press, but that the cost of the paper and stencils should be covered by the Society. In the statutory session of October 5, 1939, Dr. Alarcón officially presented the first issue of the Revista Mexicana de Tuberculosis y Enfermedades del Aparato Respiratorio (Figure 1), today the journal Neumología y Cirugía de Tórax or NCT. This first issue covered the period from July to August 1939 and Dr. Alarcón was the director. In this first issue there were 38 full members of the society, of which 22 were from Mexico City and 16 from the States. In addition, 4 corresponding members residing in Havana, Cuba, are included.
The Mexican Journal of Tuberculosis became Pneumology and Thoracic Surgery, from its first issue in 1962 (Figure 2) and the General Assembly of the Society met on August 16 of the same year, during the presidency of Dr. José Ramírez Gama, unanimously approved the name of the organization as the Mexican Society of Pneumology and Thoracic Surgery, SMNyCT, (Figure 2).
In 2010, Dr. Andrés Palomar, President of the SMNyCT and Dr. Rogelio Pérez Padilla, Director of INER, signed an agreement for the merger of the journals Pneumology and Thoracic Surgery and the INER Journal, which was approved by the General Assembly of the same year; this is how NCT was born.
