Klein Biomedical Consultants (KBC), New York, NY, recently released its second annual hand-carried ultrasound (HCU) report. The Klein analysis shows that worldwide HCU revenues increased 42% in 2007 to hit a whopping $565 million.

"It continued to be a robust year for HCU system sales, which is still by far the fastest growing market segment in ultrasound," said Harvey Klein, PhD, president of KBC. "The three leading HCU companies alone accounted for more than 85% of overall revenues. We especially saw strong international sales of 49% and solid US growth of 33% led by these three vendors."

The top vendors, according to the report, are http://www.gehealthcare.com/GE Healthcare, Waukesha, Wis, SonoSite Inc, Bothell, Wash, and ZONARE Medical Systems Inc, Mountain View, Calif. GE's share of the revenue grew 50% to $250 million in 2007; SonoSite's revenue grew 22%, and ZONARE's grew 60%.

“The HCU market should remain dynamic over the next five years as clinicians face increasing demand for portable ultrasound exams,” said Klein. “We believe the growth rate for HCU will be approximately 20% in the US and 15% internationally over this time period, with an average of 17% worldwide. This should make the HCU market the driving segment for increasing global ultrasound revenues overall.”