Full body MRI for £1,499?
Full body MRI for £1,499?
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Discussion

spangle82

Original Poster:

324 posts

255 months

This popped up on Facebook... does anyone know whether these outfits are any good? Will they charge another £1,499 for all the consultant's reports? I'm thinking there must be some sort of catch:


Defcon5

6,398 posts

207 months

They will find loads of stuff that ‘needs’ further investigation I imagine

Like letting kwik fit do your MOT

Armitage.Shanks

2,761 posts

101 months

I don't think they offer much other than the scan itself and interpretation of results by someone qualified. Any referals will be down to yourself to sort out either private or NHS. These outfits (and there are a few of them around the country) have bought/leased/hired a MRI scanner and then pay a radiologist to interpret the scan and then a doctor to tell you the results.

If you've got private medical insurance then plug into that, if not see your GP and show them the results, they'll then likely feed you into the NHS scan/consultant system.

A word of caution, if you don't feel you have anything wrong with you, do you want to go looking?

Brainpox

4,167 posts

167 months

I work in MRI, just want to offer a few words of caution.

MRI is very sensitive and it will inevitably see something that may or may not be suggested for follow up.

A typical single part MRI scan can take anywhere from 20 to 60 minutes so I'd be curious how long it takes to get 13 bits in.

MRI is no good for lungs either, if you had any specific concerns there.

These kinds of services can cause severe health anxiety so just consider if this is important to you.

Yahonza

2,754 posts

46 months

Saturday
quotequote all
If you have a reason for getting an MRI, e.g. symptoms then maybe get one.
The question is why do you want one and what would you do with the results?
Without a reason for referral it could be viewed as quackery, particularly for cancer where I don't believe there is any evidence in favour of pro-active screening by MRI.

Inbox

121 posts

2 months

Saturday
quotequote all
An MRI scan is not without risk and this chap wasn't even the patient!

A totally bizarre and tragic accident.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2n39dvp0po

Simon_GH

773 posts

96 months

Saturday
quotequote all
It’s called medical fishing in the trade - looking for problems when you’re fine and possibly finding something which is normal for you (and harmless) but falls outside of ‘normal’ parameters.

Inbox

121 posts

2 months

Saturday
quotequote all
Where they advertise really says all you need to know.

jmn

979 posts

296 months

Yesterday (08:39)
quotequote all
I had one of these carried out by a company called Lifescan in 2007.

My GP was quite impressed with the resulting report and a copy went with my medical records.

I had a severe UTI this year and we went back to the report which referred to a significant number of small Kidney Stones. Ultrasound scan awaited.

lizardbrain

2,914 posts

53 months

Yesterday (09:25)
quotequote all
as a health anxiety/overtester survivor I wouldn't recommend it on balance

of course there is a chance it will find something that requires urgent action

but it's also possible it will find stuff that would have been better left alone and will cause you huge amounts of stress

Stress is not very healthy

The_Doc

5,564 posts

236 months

Yesterday (16:03)
quotequote all
This is screening.

"Screening interventions are designed to identify conditions which could at some future point turn into disease, thus enabling earlier intervention and management in the hope to reduce mortality and suffering from a disease.
Although screening may lead to an earlier diagnosis, not all screening tests have been shown to benefit the person being screened; overdiagnosis, misdiagnosis, and creating a false sense of security are some potential adverse effects of screening.
Additionally, some screening tests can be inappropriately overused. For these reasons, a test used in a screening program, especially for a disease with low incidence, must have good sensitivity in addition to acceptable specificity."

This is which screening campaigns are justified in the UK:
https://www.nhs.uk/tests-and-treatments/nhs-screen...

The NHS does all the screening it can justify on the scientific evidence. You save money and save lives doing screening.
The NHS has all the money in its budget for screening. It does zero unproven screening.


For example, a difficult to use screening test, the PSA:
"Research has shown that around 3 in 4 men with a raised PSA level will not have cancer."
and
"While most complications from a prostate biopsy are short-term and resolve within a few weeks, 70% blood in the urine, and 60% of people have blood from the rectum, some men may experience long-term side effects. These can include persistent erectile dysfunction, chronic pain, and rarely, long-term urinary incontinence

Don't do the whole body MRI or CT scan.
Learn about false positives and false negatives.

more stuff to read here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-nsc-...


Edited by The_Doc on Sunday 10th August 20:09

LastPoster

2,990 posts

199 months

Yesterday (16:26)
quotequote all
20ish years ago I had an issue where I felt a feeling of pressure and a dull ache in my abdomen, just below the line of the rib cage.

I had private heathcare through work so after a GP referral, I had an MRI scan. At the follow up meeting the consultants opening line was 'we are all full of all sorts of lumps and bumps, just because we see something doesn't mean we will do anything about it'

Nothing much came up on the scan and now I still get the symptoms but they come and go so I think it's some kind of intolerance that I'm not bothered enough by to do anything about.