We salute your service.

Our open bore MRI machines can accommodate a table weight limit of up to 550 pounds. The scanner diameter is 70cm and patients must be smaller than 70 cm at their largest point of measurement (with the addition of equipment).

No detrimental effects have been shown to have occurred due to having an MRI when pregnant. There is, however, a risk of causing hearing problems in the fetus due to the sounds that occur throughout MRI imaging. MRI can also increase the amniotic fluid temperature. Therefore, we avoid performing screening MRI when you are pregnant.

Yes, you can book an appointment for another person. However you will need to give us that person's details, and we will need to contact them in order to get their patient history and ensure that the scan is appropriate for them.

We offer 3rd party financing through Affirm in the US for most locations.

No. It is safe to have an MRI with dental implants. For image quality, we will ask you to remove dentures if they are on a metallic plate.

No. All MRIs are radiation-free.

Yes. We take payment to guarantee your appointment time and date.

No. Our Prenuvo screening scans are designed to be performed completely without IV-contrast. We believe that the comprehensiveness and diagnostic-grade quality of the combined imaging sequences utilized in our Prenuvo multiparametric MRI protocol maintains the sufficient level of sensitivity and specificity required for tumor-detection in the general population screening setting. We therefore do not administer any exogenous contrast agents for any of our scans (which are performed for general screening), as we do not find it of added value by routine. By avoiding IV-contrast administration (therefore avoiding any needles and injections), we also avoid the degree of invasiveness associated with other imaging procedures that do require contrast; similarly we also avoid the risks of any adverse reactions (such as allergic reactions) or potential longer-term toxicity effects that are rarely associated with use of IV-contrast agents.

You can make an appointment online or give us a call at +1-833-773-6886.

Bigger is not always better," and the answer really is that it depends. For our purposes of Whole-Body MRI screening, 1.5T is actually preferred relative to 3T. While a 3T MRI may generally be a better option for a targeted brain or knee MRI evaluated, 3T performs worse for whole-body MRI purposes. This is due to wavelength interference (physics!) and imaging artifacts (more physics!) which become more exaggerated at 3T. Additionally, a 3T MRI increases the body temperature 4x more than a 1.5T MRI, which limits the number of images a 3T can obtain in the same time frame (this phenomenon is described by SAR or "specific absorption rate"--yet more physics!). Therefore, 3T MRI's are best used for more targeted, typically single body part, evaluations. As we specialize in whole body imaging, we use 1.5T MRI."

To check booking availability, navigate to our booking platform.

The Prenuvo scan should not be considered as a replacement to any standard clinical guidelines-based targeted screening practices for specific types of cancer or other health conditions. For breast cancer screening in particular, mammography remains the gold standard screening option for breast cancer. Similarly, while there are inherent pros/cons between mammography and breast MRI, a subtlety worth understanding is that "imaging the breasts with MRI'' is not the same as performing "breast MRI" (which is a specific targeted breast evaluation utilizing particular MRI techniques). While the breasts are imaged as part of the Prenuvo WB-MRI technique, the Prenuvo MRI technique does not include the specific techniques involved on standard dedicated breast MRI. Therefore, regarding breast cancer screening in particular, the Prenuvo scan can be considered an adjunct, but not a replacement for dedicated breast imaging or primary breast cancer screening practices. However, as the breasts are imaged anyways as part of the WB-MRI technique utilized by Prenuvo, if a concerning abnormality in the breasts is demonstrated, this would be reported and appropriate follow-up recommended.

If you are flexible as to when you can come to the clinic, we can usually accommodate you within 1 to 2 weeks. You are able to see real-time availability by going to our booking portal.

The simple answer is yes. The Prenuvo scan should not be considered as a replacement to any standard clinical guidelines-based targeted screening practices for specific types of cancer or other health conditions. For colon cancer screening in particular, screening colonoscopy remains the gold standard option. While unpleasant, a colonoscopy is a very good examination of the colon. It is used not just to see, but also to remove on the spot precancerous polyps before they have the opportunity to develop into cancer. Additionally, a subtlety worth understanding is that "imaging the colon with MRI'' is not the same as performing "dedicated imaging of the colon" (AKA colonography), which involves specific techniques and scan prep which are not specifically employed in the Prenuvo WB-MRI technique. For example, as no bowel prep is utilized for the Prenuvo scan, we would be relatively less sensitive/specific for colon polyps, which can be obscured by stool. While we have detected cases of colon cancer, even at stage 1, the Prenuvo scan can be thought of as an adjunct but not a replacement for primary colon cancer screening via standard guidelines-based procedures such as colonoscopy. However, as the colon is imaged anyway as part of the WB-MRI technique utilized by Prenuvo, if a concerning abnormality in the colon is demonstrated this would be reported and appropriate follow-up recommended.

If you are or suspect that you might be claustrophobic, you can request a mild sedative from your referring doctor to have with you for your Prenuvo scan. If necessary for your comfort, we can also reduce the scan time, but this could potentially reduce the comprehensiveness (overall sensitivity and/or specificity) of the scan slightly. In all cases, your deposit is non-refundable or transferable if you are unable to go through with your Prenuvo scan on the day of.

There are several advantages that make MRI a particularly attractive screening modality in imaging. An obvious one is the lack of ionizing-radiation in MRI, as opposed to CT; what this means is that with MRI we can theoretically screen a patient as frequently as needed without inducing future oncological-risk due to additive effects of repeated ionizing-radiation dosing. An additional advantage of MRI is its multiparametric nature which provides potential for much greater intrinsic soft-tissue contrast capabilities, even without requiring IV-contrast administration; in comparison, CT essentially looks at one dimension of the object being images (radiodensity) and therefore without adding-on IV-contrast many soft-tissue lesions become much more difficult to delineate. Therefore, comparing non-contrast-MRI to non-contrast CT, MRI tends to have superior sensitivity and specificity relative to CT, especially in the general screening context. There are certain individual exceptions to this (in particular primary lung screening with CT, where CT would typically have better sensitivity/specificity profiles at this time). While generally a benign addition, adding on IV-contrast as part of imaging protocols is not entirely without risk; risk stems from potential immediate adverse-reactions/allergies to the contrast-agent, short-term potential toxic-effects, and long-term deposition of contrast-agents in tissues with still unknown consequences. Therefore, contrast-enhanced imaging is generally best reserved for diagnostic purposes when benefit outweighs risk and best avoided when possible in the general screening setting. Finally, avoiding the injection required with IV-contrast makes the Prenuvo scan that much less invasive and more comfortable.

First, a major difference is the lack of ionizing radiation with the Prenuvo scan (or MRI in general for that matter), as opposed to PET/CT which involves significant radiation-dosing. Therefore while in cases of already diagnosed cancer PET-CT is likely the preferred standard for initial systemic staging and treatment-response monitoring in most clinical settings, it is not a reasonable candidate modality for general screening because over the long-term, additive exposure to ionizing-radiation actually increases the risk of inducing cancer down the line. PET-CT is a very useful cancer-imaging technique because it reflects metabolic activity, which in cancer is characteristically increased relative to background normal tissue, and can do so over large anatomic coverage with cross-sectional anatomic-precision. With Prenuvo’s MRI technique, we take advantage of a functional-equivalent of PET, however capitalizing on a different physiologic principle. Just like cancer tends to be hypermetabolic relative to background normal tissue, it also tends to have relatively more cellular-density which results in relative "diffusion restriction of water molecules" which is actually very well-imaged via MRI but technically difficult to perform well over the whole-body. To this end, we have fine-tuned performance of whole-body Diffusion-Weighted-Imaging (or WB-DWI), which is a fundamental component of our Prenuvo multiparametric WB-MRI screening protocol and therefore further strengthens the degree of sensitivity and specificity our WB-MRI screening approach. In the end, to some degree WB-MRI may eventually have a degree of overlapping roles and complimentary/different contextual strengths for cancer-imaging, depending on the clinical situation. However, in the specific context of general cancer screening, WB-MRI is a more viable option due to the lack of ionizing radiation involved compared to PET-CT.

Currently, there are no evidence-based guidelines for specifically recommending WB-MRI screening in the general population. In most cases, the decision of if/when to start should be individualized based on patient-specific concerns and ideally through shared-decision-making with a primary healthcare provider. From a statistical perspective, cancer-risk generally increases with aging (as does the risk of most diseases); however, this risk can also vary individually based on other factors such as genetic/family-history, environmental exposures and other lifestyle factors. Additionally, a proactive-health approach could be of major interest to some individuals versus of less of a priority to others. Given the lack of ionizing-radiation and avoidance of IV-contrast, there are no real direct physiologic risks from undergoing WB-MRI screening. However, there could be other less-direct concerns stemming from how to handle potential "indeterminate-risk findings" or "false-positives"; to this end, as subspecialized radiologists in practicing WB-MRI screening we are not only very conscious of this delicate balance, taking into account the patients’ referring clinicians and healthcare system's perspective in our daily clinical practice, but also have the unique clinical experience and fine-tuned screening WB-MRI techniques to stand on. In the long run, longitudinal studies on WB-MRI screening will hopefully be able to provide the more specific evidence needed to more precisely recommend the most useful age to start and screening frequency for various different patient populations relative to individualized factors. Currently at Prenuvo, we only screen patients 18 years of age or older.

We perform a comprehensive set of protocols that image the entire body. These include brain quantification, arterial assessment, fat quantification as well as dedicated cancer and spinal screening. Our custom tailored whole body MRI protocol is based on MRI tissue-contrasts based on T1-weighted, T2-weighted, Fat-suppressed and non-fat-suppressed, and DWI techniques, a combination of evidence-based and emerging technologies that offer the most comprehensive diagnostic imaging in a reasonable time frame.

We have a strict 3 business day cancellation policy. Provided that you contact us more than three business days before your scheduled scan, we are happy to accommodate changes or refund your deposit.

CT and MRI both produce advanced cross-sectional anatomical images; they also generally involve similar appearing large machines with a patient lying on a table inside a sort of tube. However, the two techniques involve fundamentally different physics. A key-difference is that CT involves significant ionizing-radiation, while MRI involves none. From a basic cross-sectional imaging perspective, there is a good degree of overlap in the diagnostic utility that can be provided by the respective modalities, although there are contexts where one would be preferred over another or when the two would be complementary. However, CT essentially looks at a "single dimension" of the object being imaged to distinguish substructures, while MRI is a multiparametric technique capable of looking at many different dimensions of tissue and therefore enabling more potential diagnostic detail (or "contrasts") when needed in a given situation. Nevertheless, even though MRI involves no ionizing-radiation and theoretically more diagnostically versatile, CT typically precedes MRI in the conventional diagnostic imaging pathway for practical reasons (i.e., CT's more availability and relative ease-of-operating compared to MRI); afterall, CT can answer most routine diagnostic imaging questions just as well as MRI, and likely more efficiently the conventional MRI.

MRI on the other hand, is typically reserved as a second-step to provide needed answers to remaining questions that CT can't completely answer on its own. Although CT has the relative disadvantage of radiation, in most clinical diagnostic settings this is not a meaningful concern because the benefit of a diagnosis outweighs the long term risk from the associated radiation-dose; however, the same is not true in the screening setting where the additive risk of repeated-radiation dosing from serial screening exams becomes much more relevant. MRI's lack of radiation makes it a uniquely attractive imaging modality for whole-body screening.

We are happy to do our best to accommodate you. Please give us a call at +1-833-773-6886 to discuss your needs.

While involving completely different physics, ultrasound and MRI share a unique property amongst the standard medical imaging modalities in that neither involves ionizing radiation, which is an advantage particularly in the screening setting. Ultrasound involves a handled probe which emits sound waves into the body, which are then reflected back to the probe and can generate an image of the underlying tissues based on the timing of the reflected sound waves received. For many common focal clinical concerns, ultrasound is usually a first-line attempt to evaluate the concern due to its wide-availability and relative inexpensiveness compared to MRI; MRI is not conventionally utilized first due to practical reasons, but theoretically would overlap a lot of the diagnostic utility of ultrasound.

In some contexts the two modalities could also serve complimentary roles. Ultrasound is very useful for doing "targeted" imaging evaluations of soft-tissue organs and fluid-filled structures, as opposed to MRI (or CT for that matter) which are "scanning" modalities of entire cross-sections of the body. Ultrasound also cannot image through bone, becomes severely limited when there is gas present in the trajectory of the ultrasound beam, and can also become difficult to use to assess deeper structures in larger habitus patients due to weakening to the sound waves over longer soft-tissue or fat-tissue distances. Overall, ultrasound suffers from a relatively poor field of vision (kind of like shining a light under the water, where the depth of field can be a bit murky) which means that while useful to evaluate structures in a more targeted fashion, it would be limited in performing whole body screening. MRI does not significantly suffer these same limitations, and therefore while both are radiation-free modalities, WB-MRI is a better candidate for effective whole body screening.

We do not submit the report to any health or insurance system unless authorized by you.

We are using WB-MRI technique which includes coverage of the heart in the field-of-view, but we are not using dedicated targeted cardiac MRI techniques to do a comprehensive MRI evaluation of the heart in particular. One major reason is the heart as an organ that is in constant motion by necessity (it must beat!), therefore we will always have a prominent degree of motion blurring in the heart which will add further limitation. In cardiac MRI, this is often accounted for by doing "ekg-gating" to time imaging to the heart beat; however, this is not currently part of our technique. In contrast to dedicated cardiac imaging techniques, we are also not including dedicated sequences to specifically evaluate coronary arteries, specific cardiac focused MRI tissue-sequences and/or angulations, or MRI-techniques to evaluate cardiac-function.

What sets us prominently apart from other “Full Body Scan” services is that we are led by a unique synergistic team of pioneers in clinical radiology and MRI-technology. Specifically, we have innovated a custom Whole-Body MRI (WB-MRI) protocol optimizing for maximal utility in the preventive healthcare screening setting.

In contrast to some other Full Body Scan approaches, which may involve components from other modalities (such as CT of the chest) and/or separate segmental MRI exams which might not get holistically evaluated or which also may not fully include some intervening anatomical regions, our protocol relies solely on MRI-techniques alone. We utilize dedicated multiparametric WB-MRI techniques in conjunction with carefully selected relevant high-yield organ-specific sequences obtained in a single rapid image acquisition procedure. This enables a convenient, comfortable experience for the patient, as well as superior holistic “Full Body Scan” radiological interpretation capabilities. 

‍

In developing this protocol and the specialized techniques involved, our team has emphasized image acquisition speed without comprising comprehensiveness or diagnostic quality of the obtained images, which is the typical tradeoff in MRI when attempting to image faster and with larger fields of view. To maximize the amount of clinically valuable proactive information from the WB-MRI scan – such as maximizing the overall sensitivity and specificity of the scan (thereby minimizing false positive and false negative rates) for conditions like suspected cancer findings, brain aneurysm, and fatty liver— it is essential to utilize a comprehensive multiparametric MRI approach. 

‍

Similar to utilizing different filters on a camera lens to capture different color properties of a scene into a photograph, multiparametric MRI acts as a filter for capturing different properties of the tissue being imaged. Beyond simply acquiring images that in sum cover most of your body’s anatomy to simply be able to offer a “Full Body Scan” product, we take particular pride in the quality and comprehensiveness of our images from our Prenuvo WB-MRI scan protocol for their maximal diagnostic and clinical utility in the screening setting. Additionally, our radiologists are uniquely specialized in the science and clinical art of whole-body screening radiology utilizing WB-MRI — which involves taking into account complexities from the individual patient’s perspective, the referring or treating physician’s perspective, and the healthcare system’s perspective. Enriched by this special clinical experience, our unique specialized radiology practice has grown into a completely patient-centered radiological WB-MRI screening service (adept at handling and risk-stratifying the wide spectrum of possible findings that can be encountered on screening WB-MRI). Due to our emphasis on diagnostic quality, clinical utility, and patient experience, this service has been very well-received by our proactive-minded patients and referring providers.

Typically Alzheimer’s disease is a clinical diagnosis. However, imaging can play a role in evaluating Alzheimer’s at various stages. If you have advanced Alzheimer's, it will typically be reflected visibly in the images of your brain in the form of characteristic patterns of brain atrophy. This may include things like loss of tissue volume in particular in regions of the temporal lobes. Additionally, serial longitudinal screening with brain MRI may provide a useful biomarker for risk factors or warning signs of developing Alzheimer’s. This can be done by looking at brain tissue volume changes over time, comparing images from earlier baseline scans to later follow up scans in order to monitor for abnormal changes in volume overall and within specific structures. Our most comprehensive Prenuvo scan option includes an additional brain MRI series that can be used for additional precise volumetric assessment to track these changes over time. If you are concerned about having Alzheimer's, we suggest you also undergo a clinical cognitive assessment.

No. The Prenuvo scan should not be considered as a replacement to any standard clinical guidelines-based targeted screening practices for specific types of cancer or other health conditions.

Nearly all of us have some degree of imaging “abnormalities'' and findings. In many cases, these may reflect typical aging-related changes, “wear-and-tear” degenerative changes, or physical changes related to lifestyle or other modifiable risk-factors, which may not be directly clinically actionable right away but may be associated with development of clinically-significant disease over the long-term.

For example, as a generation of people who spend a lot of time sitting (using computers, cell phones, watching TV) we diagnose some degree of spine degeneration in almost everyone. In other situations, many of us have benign lesions, which can often be characterized as such with a high level of confidence (or specificity) based on their MRI features as seen on the Prenuvo screening scan; and while often termed “incidental” imaging findings, by having these documented at the time of healthy baseline (which can then be used as a basis for future comparisons) it both minimizes the chance that those benign findings are not mistaken for something more serious later on as well enables the chance to detect potential more subtle-but-concerning changes over time.

Prenuvo scans do not expose you to harmful ionizing radiation that other imaging methods (X-rays, CT scans, PET scans) use. Prenuvo scans also don't use intravascular contrast dyes.

For US clinics, we do not require a referral. For Canadian clinics, you will need a referral.

If you require, we can arrange a referral from an independent medical practitioner at no cost to you. It may seem like an unnecessary requirement, but it exists to look after you in the event there is a serious medical finding. A medical practitioner can additionally assist you in understanding and contextualizing the findings in your Prenuvo scan report.