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Heart Disease (Expert Forum)
Gas and chest pain
This forum is for questions and support regarding heart issues such as: Angina, Angioplasty, Arrhythmia, Bypass Surgery, Cardiomyopathy, Coronary Artery Disease, Defibrillator, Heart Attack, Heart Disease, High Blood Pressure, Mitral Valve Prolapse, Pacemaker, PAD, Stenosis, Stress Tests.
Gas and chest pain
by Norm-Farel, Apr 26, 1999 12:00AM
Posted by Norm Farrell on April 26, 1999 at 16:11:02
Dear Doctors,
I have a couple of questions that I can't seem to get a staight answer to: Is it possible for gas from the stomach to enter the chest cavity or the sac surrounding the heart? Second, I take a daily dossage of 200mg of Metoprolol. If one of the side effect of this drug is lightheadedness, how do I know when this symptom is caused by the drug or by my condition?
Thanks for the help.
Norm
Posted by CCF CARDIO MD-APS on April 29, 1999 at 21:50:30
Dear Norm,
NO, gas from the stomach (under normal circumstances, i.e. an otherwise healthy individual) can only go back up toward the mouth (via the esophagus, called a burp) or down toward the gut. If the air and or contents of any part of your gut enter the chest cavity (or any other sterile cavity of the body for that matter) you would be a tremendously ill patient requiring long term hospitalization and antibiotics ( the gut, from mouth to anus is "unsterile" whereas the chest, abdominal, and other internal cavities in general are sterile and therefore NOT connected.)
Metoprolol usually causes lightheadedness from lowering the blood pressure, so check your pressure when you feel lightheaded. This is not always the case, so in general, if you have symtoms of your "condition" always coinciding with the lightheadedness, then most likely these two are related.
Your doctor should be aware of the lightheadedness and should be able by taking a history to help you decifer the likely cause of your lightheadedness.
I hope this information is useful. Information provided in the heart forum is for
general purposes only. Only your physician can provided specific diagnoses and therapies.
Feel free to write back with further questions. Good luck!
