Valenzuela  City residents who need a computerized tomography scan may now avail the service at the Valenzuela City Emergency Hospital, at rates lower than those in most other hospitals in the Caloocan-Malabon-Navotas-Valenzuela area.

Unveiled in February, the Neusoft NeuViz 16 Multiscanner at the city government-run VCEH is the first 16-slice CT scan machine in this area in Metro Manila, where most CT scan machines produce one to two slices.

Slices refer to the images of the body’s cross-section a CT scan machine can generate. The more slices a CT scan machine can do, the more detailed the loaf, or the three-dimensional picture comprised of slices.

The VCEH CT scan machine can perform a total of 41 procedures, including scans for the head, chest, abdomen, pelvis, spine, and legs.

A plain head scan, which typically costs Php4,000 in other hospitals, is priced at Php2,500,  a price list from the VCEH shows.  Fee for a plain head, temporal and facial scan, Php9,000 in most facilities, is Php7,680 at the VCEH.

Contrast, on the other hand, requires additional fees that range from Php1,700 to Php3,800.  US-based hospital Mayo Clinic defines a contrast as “a special dye…needed for some CT scans, to help highlight the areas of [the] body being examined”.

Since the service opened to the public, clients availing of the CT scan reach as many as 14 in a day, the VCEH reports.

A CT scan machine is a medical equipment used to diagnose diseases that cannot be located by traditional medical visualization techniques. The patient typically lies facing upward on a table, which then passes through the ring-shaped device. Unlike an ordinary x-ray machine, a CT scanner can scan through bones and other structures, thus producing more detailed pictures of the internal organs.

For more information, you may contact the VCEH at 352-6000.