Chest pain with shortness of breath

[raprapper]

My husband (39 yrs) has been experiencing chest pain and shortness of breath for about 4 months.  First started out as shortness of breath then chest pain.  He has been also having pain in the throat area and feeling very fatigue and weak.  Shortness of breath comes on with physical activity sometimes with light activity or even if talk too much.  Chest pain is in mid section of chest and to the left.  He has had chest x-rays, blood work, pulmonary function test, asthma test, CT Scan and all came back normal.  He had a stress test with nuclear injection but was unable to do the full test due to pain and shortness of breath.  He is scheduled to get a echocardiogram done.  He is a smoker, drank, underactive thyroid.  In his family history there is hardening of the arteries, stroke, thyroid, high blood pressure.  In his job field which he started about 3 months prior to this incident, he is a truck driver and delivers food products, goes in and out of refrigerated areas and which has a lot of physical activity and heavy lifting.  My question is does all this sound like it might be heart disease related or possible issue within the chest wall with regard to torn tendons, muscle, etc. with type of work?

[kenkeith]

Shortness of breath and chest pain, etc. are symptoms of heart disorder.  The cause can ischemia (blocked coronary arteries) that reduces blood/oxygen flow to the heart cells and this causes angina (chest pain).  Also, when there is a heavy demand for more oxy/blood (happens with exertion for instance) the heart is unable to adequately respond.

The tests given and passed indicate there are no blocked arteries.  So an echocardiogram has been scheduled.  The echo will image the heart's anatomy for any structual anomolies with the heart valves, blood shunting between heart chambers, hypokinesis (impairment of heart muscle due to injury or disease), etc.  Any of these conditions as well as other conditions can reduce the heart's ability to adequately supply enough blood with each stroke sufficient to meet demand.

[ed34]

An echoscan will give a lot of data regarding the dimensions of the chambers of the heart. It also gives valuable information regarding the functionality of the valves. So this
is normally the first stage in investigating.
It certainly sounds like a Heart problem and I hope Aspirin has been prescribed as a safety measure. If the blood came back normal, especially the troponin test, then it's
clear that the Heart isn't being stressed enough to cause tissue death.
I guess that the Doctors will try to control the symptoms with medication such as
nitrates and beta blockers. They may decide to do an angiogram to look at the coronary
arteries in time.