IMV: Angio growth slips to 1%

MR angiography of upper extremity vascular disease. Source: Radiographics

The growth rate for interventional procedures being performed in U.S. angiography labs has fallen to 1 percent annually, according to a newly released report by market research firm IMV Medical Information Division. Fewer sites are buying brand-new systems, and in coming years, hospitals most likely will focus on replacing existing systems.

According to IMV’s recent census of angio labs in the U.S., an estimated 4.9 million procedures were performed at 1,710 angio lab sites in 2010, including noncoronary vascular angiographic and other procedures.

From 2008 to 2010, total procedures performed in angio labs grew approximately 2 percent, from 4.8 million in 2008 to 4.9 million procedures in 2010 for hospitals with 150 or more beds, resulting in an average annual growth rate of about 1 percent. The pace of angio lab procedure growth has slowed compared with the prior four-year period from 2004 to 2008, when total procedures grew at an average annual growth rate of approximately 4.6 percent, from four million to 4.8 million.

“While the total angio lab procedure volume has been relatively stable, the procedure mix has broadened,” observed Lorna Young, IMV's senior director of market research. “From 2004 to 2010, the number of peripherally inserted central catheter line/vascular access, vertebroplasty, sacroplasty, kyphoplasty, biopsy, radiofrequency (RF) tumor ablation and other RF studies has contributed to the overall volume of procedures performed in angio labs.”

Young added the market outlook for the next two to three years looks relatively stable, as hospitals seek to retool older angio labs.

Other report highlights:

• 52 percent of angio lab sites have one room, 31 percent have two rooms and 17 percent have three or more rooms.
• About 75 percent of planned purchases are for replacement units, and 25 percent will be additional units.
• Angio lab sales in the future will primarily consist of new units, with 98 percent of the planned units being new and 2 percent planned to be refurbished/used units.
• In addition to interventional radiologists using the angio suite, vascular surgeons are the second most likely physician type to be using angio labs, performing procedures in more than 60 percent of the angio lab sites.

"About 40 percent of the hospitals with 150 or more beds are planning to purchase labs from 2011 through 2013, with more than 90 percent of the planned angio lab purchases having flat-panel digital detectors," Young said. "This is comparable to the 41 percent of angio lab sites reported in IMV’s prior 2008/2009 study.”

IMV’s report includes market forecast scenarios for 2011 to 2015, incorporating varying assumptions about the first-buyer, replacement and additional unit purchases based on market indicators identified in the report.  IMV’s 2011 Interventional Angiography Census Database provides profiles of U.S. hospitals with 150 or more beds performing interventional angiography procedures, where at least 50 percent of the total lab volume consists of noncoronary angiography procedures.