About the Noninvasive Heart Center

For the past 22 years The Noninvasive Heart Center of San Diego has been protecting patients with coronary artery disease from unnecessary bypass surgery and angioplasty. Approximately 3000 patients undergo these procedures every day. Rarely is the patient told that he or she has other options for diagnosis and treatment, that medical treatment with drugs is highly effective, and that invasive, interventional treatment is only of temporary benefit. Nor is the patient told that such treatment is often worse than their disease, is associated with high incidence of complications, does not prevent heart attacks, heart failure or premature death, does not relieve the patient of the need to take medication post operatively, and has become popular merely because the doctor makes a great deal of money by recommending invasive treatment.

Even worse, the patient is led to believe that unless he or she undergoes immediate angiograms followed by angioplasty or bypass surgery, they will have a massive heart attack and die! Such scare tactics by these medical terrorists are widely utilized in order to frighten the patient into agreeing to have these procedures. The patient is never told that surgery is more for the benefit of the doctor than the patient, and that the cardiologist has a quota to fill in order to maintain his skills and hospital privileges!

The Noninvasive Heart Center has been diagnosing and treating patients with coronary artery disease medically for over 30 years. Early diagnosis is the cornerstone of treatment and can be accomplished with a variety of noninvasive tests which Dr. Wayne describes in his books (see below). Medication, when the proper drugs are given, and in the right amount, is almost 100% effective in minimizing or relieving symptoms. More importantly, experience has shown that medication will usually slow down or prevent the long term complications of coronary artery disease such as heart attacks, congestive failure, and premature death.

Not only is noninvasive diagnosis highly successful in detecting coronary artery disease, but the tests used will often uncover other conditions such as hypertension (high blood pressure), that will produce chest pain that is very similar to coronary artery disease. Typically, hypertension will remain hidden for years with a seemingly normal pressure at rest, but becomes transiently elevated during stress, and is often accompanied by chest pain. These patients are usually made to undergo angioplasty or surgery when all they really need are blood pressure pills.

Because the blood pressure will return to normal at rest, hypertension often remains undetected with the usual type of examination that is commonly done in the doctor's office, i.e. a resting blood pressure check, an examination with an ordinary stethoscope, the basic design of which has not changed in over 100 years, and an electrocardiogram. This type of examination is no different than what was being done 50 years ago. Consequently, it will rarely detect heart disease or high blood pressure unless these conditions are very far advanced. Noninvasive diagnosis will detect these conditions very early. Like a fire that is discovered quickly and causes little damage, high blood pressure and heart disease will rarely cause complications when diagnosed and treated early.

Lastly, noninvasive tests will serve as an early warning system for patients with known disease who are currently asymptomatic, or if symptoms are present, whether those symptoms are stable. This is important because in many ways, heart attacks are like earthquakes. They typically occur suddenly, without warning, and their effects can be devastating. Unlike earthquakes, however, heart attacks can usually be prevented.

The Director of the Noninvasive Heart Center is Howard H. Wayne, M.D., F.A.C.C., F.C.C.P., F.A.C.P. He is a Fellow of The American College of Cardiology, The American College of Chest Physicians, and The American College of Physicians, and is an internationally known cardiologist who has been teaching other doctors about noninvasive cardiology for almost 30 years. His book How To Protect Your Heart From Your Doctor describes how patients with heart disease are either under diagnosed and under treated, or over diagnosed with unnecessary angiograms, and over treated with needless angioplasty or bypass surgery.

A more recent book (May, 1998) Living Longer With Heart Disease: The Noninvasive Approach That Will Save Your Life goes into more detail with newer information about unnecessary interventions such as angioplasty, stents and coronary artery bypass surgery, and how medical treatment with modern medications will not only relieve symptoms in almost all patients, but will actually prevent heart attacks.

For more information, call the Noninvasive Heart Center at our toll free number 1-800-673-4361, or write to the