Declining M&A deal values and fewer PMA approvals slammed the med tech industry in the first 6 months of 2013. But the global medical device and diagnostics market will grow 4.5% annually between from 2012 through 2018 to be worth a massive $455 billion at the end of that period, a new report predicted. EvaluateMedTech's World Preview 2013 report ranked in vitro diagnostics as the world's largest med tech sector in 2018, followed by cardiology and then diagnostic imaging. Neurology will grow the fastest, the report concluded. But diabetic care and orthopedics will expand the slowest, the report concluded. EvaluateMedTech released its report on Sept. 23 at the AdvaMed 2013 conference in Washington, D.C. Release | Report | FierceDiagnostics' take