With the growth in the number of the elderly and their susceptibility to diseases, the nuclear imaging equipment market would also witness considerable progress in the coming years. In such a process, an extremely small amount of a radioactive material is injected into the body, and its absorption by a tissue or organ is detected by a gamma camera, which catches the radiation thus produced, thereby helping doctors assess the functioning of that body part. Thallium, technetium, gallium, xenon, and iodine are among the numerous radioactive elements or radionucleotides used for the purpose.
Single-positron emission computed tomography (SPECT), hybrid positron emission tomography (PET), and planar scintigraphy are the various nuclear imaging techniques. Among these, the highest demand in the past has been for SPECT scanners, as they are widely used to asses the severity of brain injury, where CT and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have certain limitations, especially in detecting the flow of blood in the veins and arteries. In the coming years, hybrid PET systems are expected to witness the most rapidly increasing demand.
Such tests are done at hospitals, diagnostic centers, research institutes, and numerous other settings. Among these, hospitals are the largest users of such devices, as they host the highest number of patients. Hospitals have skilled professionals, who also offer medical advice, rather than just scan results, which is why patients prefer visiting these over diagnostic centers. This is also why, even in the coming years, these healthcare settings would account for the highest procurement rate of such equipment.
Across the world, North America has been the largest user of nuclear imaging, as it accounts for extremely high cancer and cardiovascular disease rates. As such technologies are helpful in seeing the blood flow, they are being rapidly used for heart diseases. Further, the continent is the first to embrace advanced technology, which further leads to its dominance on the industry. In the coming years, the nuclear imaging equipment market growth would be the fastest in Asia-Pacific (APAC), on account of the growing geriatric population and cardiovascular, oncological, and neurological disease incidence.
Thus, with the increasing incidence of various diseases and the need for effective diagnosis, the procurement rate of nuclear imaging scanners would also rise across the world.