The market for contrast agents and radiopharmaceuticals is expected to grow over the next few years, with much of that growth coming from MRI, ultrasound, and nuclear medicine, according to a new report published by Kalorama Information.
The report, "Medical Imaging Markets: Contrast Agents," finds that annual growth for medical contrast media will continue over the next five years, despite the slump in capital equipment purchases. Imaging exams are still needed for making many diagnoses, and contrast facilitates diagnosis in many cases, the company said.
The contrast market reached $3.5 billion in 2011; Kalorama predicts yearly growth rates for contrast agents used with most modalities to range from 2% to 4%.
![Representative example of a 16-year-old male patient with underlying X-linked adrenoleukodystrophy. (A, B) Paired anteroposterior (AP) chest radiograph and dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) report shows lumbar spine (L1 through L4) areal bone mineral density (BMD). The DXA report was reformatted for anonymization and improved readability. The patient had low BMD (Z score ≤ −2.0). (C) Model (chest radiography [CXR]–BMD) output shows the predicted raw BMD and Z score in comparison with the DXA reference standard, together with interpretability analyses using Shapley additive explanations (SHAP) and gradient-weighted class activation maps. The patient was classified as having low BMD, consistent with the reference standard. AM = age-matched, DEXA = dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry, RM2 = room 2, SNUH = Seoul National University Hospital, YA = young adult.](https://img.auntminnie.com/mindful/smg/workspaces/default/uploads/2026/04/ai-children-bone-density.0snnf2EJjr.jpg?auto=format%2Ccompress&dpr=2&fit=crop&h=167&q=70&w=250)
