Odd symptoms?

[nurse12hr]

I am a healthy 42 y/o female, 5'7" and 148 pounds.  No problems at all until Aug of this year, when I experienced about 4 hours worth of chest pain that was moderately uncomfortable.  Up until this time, my bp (on the rare occasions I had it checked) stayed in the 100/60 ballpark.  My bp during this episode was in the 170/100's.  I did nothing about the pain but rest and it eventually went away.  Went to my MD next day who did an ekg and declared that nothing was wrong.  Just to watch it and my bp.  
No furthur symptoms until the past 2 weeks.  Now I am plagued with the same kinds of chest pain (mid sternal, crushing, no pinpoint tenderness, goes away with rest).  EKG remains normal, but my doc thought he now heard an aortic murmur.  Went for an echo which was normal.  
My question is, what sorts of tests need to be done?  My doc wants to just assume I am having angina and treat me w/o any furthur testing.  He mentioned Prinzmetal angina, but I never have the pain at rest, and all my lipid studies are great.  I understand that stress testing in premenopausal women can be misleading.  Any ideas how to proceed?
Oh, one furthur question, why would my symptoms be so pronounced when I am only doing mild activities, and not when I am under great stress or doing heavy excercise?  I will have 2 hours of pain for example when I am just folding laundry or walking outside, yet when I recently hiked for over 5 miles in the woods, no symptoms at all!  Why?

THanks so much for your great service.

[CCF-M.D.-CRC]

Dear Christie,
I would be very careful about making a diagnosis of angina based on your symptoms.  Variant angina (Prinzmetal's angina) is one possibility but other causes such as costocondritis, GI symptoms, and other possibilities.  Stress testing with some type of scan (echo or nuclear) would be a good first test to evaluate the heart.  You may have to eventually have a heart cath with ergotivine challenge to really test for variant angina.  If your doctor is not a cardiologist I would ask him for a referral.

[alberta]

I am a 62 year old woman. I have been experiencing pulse rates
of 88 to 99  periodically. this occurs often while at rest or
I have been awaken by it.

Two years ago I was given a heart scan at Walter Reed Army Hosp.
the readings ran 0-400....0 being the best reading. My reading
came up 400+. I went to a cardiologist who said  he didn't have
too much faith in these tests, since not enough of them out there to get good measurement readings. It showed I had some
build up in my arteries. He gave me a stress test and I did well.
He put me on collesteral medication.
I keep pretty busy, not the type to sit around. I am close to
200 lbs. but no one wants to talk  monitered diet. I really try
to watch my fats and calories, but not much luck.
In any case this pulse thing is bothering me. Also my pressure
goes up and down. My normal is 128/76...the high has been 160/98.
Any information  or suggestions would be appreciated.