Corrected Hole in Heart, 25 Years On

I'm 32, male. Had a corrective surgery for hole in heart about 25 years ago, don't exercise but not too much overweight.

I've had series of cramps to the left side of the chest for the past 2 years with the most recent one happening just minutes before my posting, which actualy prompted me to search for heart attack symptoms. I easily get cramps to my calves when i stretch which i believe could be due to old soccer injury or maybe cholesterol. I havent done any checkup in years except for visit to general practitioners.

My question, is the cramp to the left chest a symptom of heart attack / angina?

[Jack54]

I have had lots of angina in the past, so I know how, in general, how angina is experienced in men. I have never heard of angina being experienced as a cramp in the chest. I could surely be wrong though.

The important thing to me is that you have a history of a congenital heart defect, that ~25% of the population have. ( Isn't that amazing?) So you need to get to a cardiologist and have an echocardiogram to see if the PFO is still "fixed", and to collect all the other great data that a good echocardiogram reveals.

Your symptoms do not match those with the literature, but a young man of 30 in a hospital bed beside me, had PFO since birth and had had chest pains for 1 month. I believe that they were going to do a cardiac implant via catheterization to close the hole.

Here is a good explanation of the procedure that you might well need again:
http://www.clevelandclinic.org/heartcenter/pub/guide/disease/congenital/pfo.htm

Your chest cramps may be due to an unbalance in your blood electrolytes, such as low magnesium, potassium, calcium etc. It is just your history that makes it essential for you to have an echocardiogram soon.

Best of health to you,

Jack