Do you know of any physician's examination room that has a heat lamp above the examination table/bed so undressed patients can be comfortably warm while they are waiting for the physician to examine them? Ours does!!

Do you know of any physician's waiting room where there is a genuine Yamaha Acoustic Piano with a laser assisted player that can calm the nerves of the waiting patients? Ours does!!

Do you know of any physician's office that uses paperless Electronic Medical Records that is 5 years into the future in advanced technology? Ours does!!

Do you know of any cardiologist's office where all imaging and testing equipment uses digital technology? Ours does!! For example: Did you know that Heart Institute of North Dakota was the first in North Dakota to Offer Digital Stress testing, Digital Echo testing, Digital Holter testing in North Dakota? - Establish the largest Digital Echocardiography Network in North Dakota? - Develop and deploy a True Electronic Medical Records system. (True “Electronic Medical Records” means that the system is truly paperless!)

No one else - not any of even the largest Health Systems in this area has anything close to what we have!! “I have visited over 100 hospitals and clinics all over North America and Hawaii. I have never seen a medical facility that has as many technological innovations as the Heart Institute of North Dakota”- Dr. Donald Voelker (Chief of Cardiology, Medical Center of South Arkansas)

Why would any of these technological innovations make any difference to you as a patient? These innovations save time which allows Dr. Chelliah to spend more time with you to explain what is wrong with your heart and what needs to be done. You might wonder what all these technologies have to do with the care you get!

For more information or to obtain a Free DVD about our facility please contact us.

Dear Patient:

For over the last 50 years we have known that patients with certain heart conditions are more prone to die prematurely. Some of the more important heart conditions that result in their demise include weak heart muscle from any cause including hardening of the arteries.

Further studies determined that the most common precipitating event (the final event) of most of these deaths was the sudden and unpredictable occurrence of a rapid and chaotic electrical activity of the heart called Ventricular Fibrillation (VF).

For several decades heart specialists have tried several different types of treatment to prevent these deaths caused by VF. During the last 8 years, at least 3 different research studies showed that although most medications were essentially useless in preventing such deaths, one technique was successful in preventing deaths in a large number of such patients. This involved implantation of a small pacemaker type of device called a defibrillator under the skin below the collar bone. This is basically a miniaturized version of the portable machine the emergency medical personnel use to revive a patient's heart rhythm during a cardiac arrest. These devices actually constantly monitor the patient's heart rhythm and when a patient develops one of the dangerous rhythm patterns, the device delivers a shock to the heart quickly terminating the dangerous rhythm.

Now that we had found a way to promptly correct this potentially dangerous rhythm problem, the next dilemma we faced was to correctly identify those patients most likely to benefit from this life-saving procedure. Although we knew that patients with weak heart muscle or hardening of the arteries were the ones who are most likely to develop VF, we know that not every one of these individuals with weak heart muscle will develop the dangerous heart rhythm.

A new technique has been developed and perfected over the last 15 years that has recently obtained FDA approval. This is called the Microvolt T-Wave Alternans Test (MTWA Test).

Every human heart beat is initiated by an electrical shock that is produced in the right upper chamber of the heart. This electrical shock spreads through the upper chambers and then spreads to the lower chambers. When the upper chambers are excited by this electrical activity, this electrical activity can be recorded by the Electro CardioGraph machine often referred to as an ECG (EKG) machine. That small electrical activity of the upper chambers of the heart is called the “P” wave. When the lower chambers are activited, the electrical activity that can be recorded by the ECG machine is called the “QRS” wave. This is immediately followed a third wave called the “T” wave which is the electrical activity that is involved in the “recharging” (or recovery phase of the) electrical activity of the heart.

Intense research over the last several decades by some medical scientists revealed that patients who exhibited certain tiny electrical “oscillations” (or “alternations”) during the electrical recovery period namely, the “T” wave actually were more prone to develop these potentially fatal heart rhythm abnormalities.

These tiny oscillations buried inside the T-waves are not visible to the naked eye. In fact, these electrical oscillations are so tiny they are only a few millionths of a volt in amplitude. One millionth of a volt is known as a ‘microvolt'. To give you an idea of how small a microvolt is to let you know that the common AA battery produces 1.5 Volts only. If we were to divide the voltage from a AA battery into one million parts, that would be 1.5 microvolt. These tiny oscillations we are talking about that occur in the heart amount to only about 2 or 3 parts out of that million. Now you know why this test is named MicroVolt T-Wave Alternans .

In this test, basically we slowly increase your heart rate either by exercise or by the infusion of a medication through your vein. A special computerized EKG machine records every one of your heart beats and then using a very sophisticated computer program analyzes the “T” waves and looks for this tiny microvolt oscillations. This test has been approved by the FDA and has been approved for payment by Medicare and most other insurance companies, although not all.\

The Heart Institute of ND is proud to offer this new potentially life saving diagnostic test. We are first and only medical center in all of North Dakota to offer this service.

Once again, the Heart Institute of North Dakota leads the way in providing the very latest in life-saving technology for you and your family.

For Further Information call 701 780 2000

Noah N. Chelliah, MD, FACC, FACP, FCCP
President, Heart Institue of North Dakota, Ltd.
& Professor of Medicine,UND School of Medical Sciences