Compared · Blood panel vs full-body MRI
Bloods first, for most people, and the reason is what each one can actually see. A full-body MRI looks at structure: it can find a tumour, an aneurysm, a cyst on a kidney or a lesion on the liver, at £1,000 to £2,500 a scan. A blood panel measures chemistry: insulin resistance, ApoB and Lp(a), thyroid, kidney and liver function, inflammation, hormones, iron and vitamins, at £269 to £799. The diseases most likely to shorten your life, heart disease and type 2 diabetes, start in the chemistry years before there is anything for a scanner to see. The scan is for finding what has already grown. The panel is for finding what is about to.
Venous draw at 103 UK clinics or at home. Written report within 48 hours of the lab receiving your sample.
Last reviewed 16 September 2026
The short answer
Do the blood panel first. It is a fifth of the price, it measures the things that drive most early death and most day-to-day symptoms, and it produces a plan you can act on. Add a full-body MRI if you have a specific structural worry, a strong family history of a cancer that imaging catches, or the money to do both and the temperament to handle a probably-benign incidental finding. No UK or US radiology body recommends whole-body MRI as routine screening for people without symptoms; every one of them recommends the blood markers.
Side by side
| What you want to know | Full-body MRI | Blood panel (TrueVitals Ultimate) |
|---|---|---|
| A tumour, cyst or lesion in an organ | Yes, above a few millimetres | Only indirectly, via tumour markers and organ function |
| Aortic aneurysm, spinal or joint problems | Yes | No |
| Brain structure | Yes | No |
| Heart attack risk in the next ten years | Indirectly at best; no coronary detail on a screening MRI | Yes, ApoB, Lp(a), hs-CRP, HbA1c, insulin |
| Insulin resistance and prediabetes | No | Yes, a decade before diagnosis |
| Thyroid function | Can see a nodule; cannot tell if the gland works | Yes, TSH, free T4, free T3, antibodies |
| Kidney and liver function | Can see fat in the liver or a kidney cyst; cannot measure function | Yes, eGFR, cystatin C, ALT, GGT and the rest |
| Iron, B12, vitamin D, hormones | No | Yes |
| Why you are tired, gaining weight, low, foggy | Almost never | Usually: thyroid, iron, B12, D, insulin, cortisol |
| Incidental findings | Common; most benign, many needing follow-up scans or biopsy | Out-of-range markers are explained in context and usually acted on with lifestyle, supplements or a GP conversation |
| Radiation | None (MRI); CT alternatives do carry a dose | None |
| Time | 45 to 90 minutes in the scanner, results in days to weeks | Ten-minute draw; report within 48 hours of the lab |
| How often | Once, or every few years | Yearly, or every 3 to 6 months if you are changing something |
| Price | Roughly £1,000 to £2,500 in the UK | £349 + £19 clinic or £39 at home; Signature £799 all in |
MRI prices and protocols vary by provider; figures are approximate from UK listings in 2026. The blood panel column is from the published TrueVitals panel contents.
The honest case for each
Get the MRI if
A strong family history of a cancer imaging catches early (kidney, pancreatic, some brain tumours), a known aneurysm risk, unexplained pain a GP has not resolved, or a finding from another scan that needs a look. For those, MRI is the right tool and no blood test replaces it.
Get the bloods if
Heart disease and diabetes in the family, tiredness, weight you cannot shift, low mood, brain fog, or simply a baseline at 30, 40 or 50. These are chemistry questions and the panel answers them for a fraction of the cost, with a plan. What a full-body check should include.
The incidental-finding problem
Whole-body MRI in healthy adults turns up something unexpected in a large minority of people: a kidney cyst, a liver haemangioma, a thyroid nodule, a spot on a lung. Almost all are harmless. Many still need a follow-up scan, a specialist referral or occasionally a biopsy to prove it, which is months of worry and cost for a finding that changes nothing. This is the main reason radiology bodies do not recommend screening MRI for people without symptoms.
The blood-test equivalent
A panel will also find things you did not expect, a high Lp(a), a ferritin of 15, a HOMA-IR of 4. The difference is that each comes with a known cause, a known next step, and a retest that shows whether it worked. That is the point of measuring chemistry: it is actionable in a way a shadow on a scan usually is not.
Which panel
Advanced
74 biomarkers · £269
Full thyroid with antibodies, ApoB and full lipids, hs-CRP, HbA1c, full iron studies, vitamin D, B12, folate, core hormones, liver, kidney, electrolytes. The baseline, at a quarter of the price of a scan.
View AdvancedDo this first
Ultimate
114 biomarkers · £349
Adds fasting insulin and HOMA-IR, Lp(a), cystatin C, complete hormones, tumour markers and urinalysis. The ten-year risk picture a scanner cannot see, with a written report and a plan.
View UltimateSignature
230 biomarkers · £799
Processed by Randox and collected at a Randox clinic with blood pressure and physical measurements on the day. Extended cardiovascular, autoimmune, digestive and neurological screening. Still a third of the price of a scan.
View SignatureClinic draw £19. At-home £39. Fast from 10pm the night before. Pay monthly available.
If you are doing both
If money is not the constraint, the order still matters. Run the blood panel first: it will tell you whether there is anything the scan should look harder at (a raised tumour marker, a liver enzyme pattern, a kidney result), and it gives the radiologist context. Then have the MRI. Then repeat the bloods in six or twelve months, because the chemistry moves and the structure mostly does not, and the second report is where you see whether what you changed is working. A scan is a photograph. A panel repeated is a film. The longevity blood test.Neko Health compared.
FAQs
For a specific structural concern or a strong family history of a cancer that imaging catches early, it can be. As routine screening for someone without symptoms, no radiology body recommends it, mainly because of the rate of incidental findings that lead to further tests without changing outcomes. A blood panel answers the more common questions at a fraction of the cost.
Not in the same way. An MRI can see a mass; a blood panel measures tumour markers (PSA with free ratio, CA-125, CEA, AFP and others in Ultimate) and organ function, which can raise a flag but are not a diagnosis. For cancers with a good blood marker, prostate for example, the blood test is the standard first step. For most others, imaging is how they are found.
A screening full-body MRI does not image the coronary arteries in useful detail and cannot measure the particles that cause atherosclerosis. Ten-year cardiovascular risk is a blood question: ApoB, Lp(a), hs-CRP, HbA1c and fasting insulin. A dedicated cardiac CT calcium score is the imaging test for coronary disease, and it is a different scan. Heart health blood test.
Roughly £1,000 to £2,500 depending on the provider and how many body regions are included. A TrueVitals Ultimate panel is £349 plus the draw; Signature is £799 all in.
The blood panel, unless you have a specific structural worry. It is cheaper, faster, covers the diseases most likely to affect you, produces a plan, and will tell you if there is anything a scan should look harder at.
Advanced and Ultimate reports are delivered within 48 hours of the laboratory receiving your sample. Signature takes around 12 working days.
114 biomarkers from one venous draw, at 103 clinics or at home, with a written report within 48 hours and a plan you can act on.
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