RadNet saw its sales surge during 2021’s first quarter as imaging volumes picked up amid loosening pandemic safety restrictions, the Los Angeles-based imaging center operator reported Monday.

Adjusted earnings—before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization—leapt nearly 93% up to $39 million during the year’s first three months when compared to the same time in 2020. Factoring in COVID-19 relief funds from the government, RadNet saw its earnings surge more than 123%, up to $45.5 million.

In explaining the “record” quarter, CEO Howard Berger, MD, cited cost saving measures instituted during the pandemic, investments in 3D mammography, and normalized procedural volumes as states began relaxing COVID-19 restrictions.

“Given the positive trends we are experiencing in our business and the strong financial performance of the first quarter, we have elected to revise our guidance levels upwards in anticipation of financial results that we project to exceed our original expectations,” Berger said Monday, May 10.

RadNet increased the upper range of its revenue projection for 2021 from $1.3 billion up to $1.325 billion. Its adjusted earnings outlook, meanwhile, climbed from an upper estimate of $190 to $197 million, officials reported this week.

Compared to last year’s numbers as the pandemic began to take hold in early 2020, RadNet saw CT volume swell 9.5%. MRI (6.9%), PET/CT (2.5%) and overall imaging volume inclusive of X-ray, ultrasound and mammography (8.4%) all increased year-over-year. On a same-center basis including only locations that were with RadNet in 2020 and 2021, MRI (2.5%), CT (4.4%), PET/CT (2.9%) and routing imaging (5%) all still increased.

Berger said the pandemic has been a “catalyst for tuck-in acquisitions,” as the company purchased 10 East Coast imaging centers in February and March. Altogether, RadNet now operates a network of 346 outpatient centers, concentrated in California, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York and Arizona.