Practicing Emergency Medicine, I order and review lots of Ultrasounds, X-rays and CTs, and only rarely do MRI’s. I however find it interesting if field of view is much smaller, yet they are doing one’s entire head, neck, torso in 30 minutes or so.
I’ve found conflicted information on this topic - if someone has implants or is obese then a 3 Tesla might not be best choice - however this discussion - which may be incorrect would seem to support the 3T finding abnormalities that are smaller than a lower Tesla machine. Happy to be educated, but looks like the imaging centers and radiologists don’t necessary agree?
Www.Ezra.com/blog/3t-mri
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Prenuvo scans sound promising but I do not have much faith in their effort to properly safeguard patient data (MRI scans). I sent their IT department an email concerning their lack of two factor authentication and some other basic problems with their website but they haven’t been responsive.
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Prenuvo has an interesting analysis [https://prenuvo.com/blog/difference-between-1-5t-and-3t-mri](https://Prenuvo on 1.5T vs 3.0T whole body MRI) suggesting that for whole body MRI 1.5T produces superior images, given the same scan time and here is why:
In theory a 3T MRI can produce twice the resolution of a 1.5T MRI given the same scanning time OR the same resolution at half the scanning time. The problem is that a 3T MRI also heats the tissue being scanned 4x as much as a 1.5T MRI. For the usual small area MRI scans (eg hand or brain only), the heat can be dissipated by the blood flowing through the scanned area and is rapidly distributed through the body and can be gradually dissipated after the MRI is completed. However for whole body MRI that last 30 minutes or longer the heat starts building up throughout the body and and for 1.5T MRI the body temperature rise starts to (barely) exceed the Medical limits for safe MRI tissue heat exposure, while with a 3T MRI the temperature rise would be 4x the Medical safe limit (this includes an uncomfortable sensation of being microwaved/cooked while on a full speed 3T MRI scan of 30 minutes or longer).The only way around that for 3T MRI is to run the scan 4x slower. So to get the advantage of 2x higher resolution with 3T MRI, you need a scan time 4x longer than with 1.5T MRI. Alternately, you could run the 3T MRI at the same resolution as the 1.5T MRI, and would still take 2x as long to complete the scan. In fact both Ezra and SimoneOne that use 3T MRI whole body scans DO NOT take longer for the scan than Prenuvo (Ezra takes around the same time and SimoneOne is actually faster). This means both Ezra and SimoneOne are either scanning less of your body OR producing lower resolutions than Prenuvo with the 1.5T MRI. Prenuvo claims their whole body scan generates significantly more total voxels (3D pixels) than any other current whole body MRI, and even though Prenuvo scans a larger part of your body than Ezra or SimoneOne (they typically skip your limbs), Prenuvo still end up with higher resolution (on average).
Prenuvo does mention that 3T MRI whole body scans often trade off higher resolution in the brain for lower resolution elsewhere so might have higher resolution in the brain than the more uniform resolution of Prenuvo’s 1.5T MRI scan, but Prenuvo questions if that provides any benefits for cancer detection (95% of cancers are in the Torso). However, the higher brain resolution allows SimoneOne to run the NeuroQuant software, which might provide useful information about progression of vascular Dementia, including brain shrinkage, so I am tempted to get the SimoneOne in alterate years to keep track of my vascular Dementia risk. Alternately, I could get a separate brain only MRI with NeuroQuant at most regular MRI centers for around $700.
PS: When booking a Prenuvo scan remember to search for one of the $300 celebrity endorsement discount coupons (available for anyone), and check if you are eligible for a $400 discount for having a particular life insurance. There was also a $500 discount in the past for Chase Sapphire Reserve card owners, so worth checking if that ever comes back.
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