Report: Cardiovascular studies drive nuclear medicine growth

Approximately 18.4 million nuclear medicine procedures were performed in the United States in 2002, accounting for a 9 percent increase over volume of 16.8 million procedures in 2001.

The numbers from IMV Medical Information Division - which come from more than 7,000 hospitals and non-hospital sites - show that 9.9 million of those procedures in 2002 were cardiovascular studies, including cardiac perfusion. IMV also noted that cardiovascular procedures - excluding positron emission tomography (PET) exams - have grown from 35 percent of all nuclear medicine procedures in 1992 to 54 percent in 2002.

IMV also found 2,823 non-hospital sites performing nuclear medicine procedures in 2003, compared with 2,168 sites in its 2001-2002 report - an increase of 30 percent.

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