Pain

  I am looking for some confirmation.  I am 29 years old, male, in fairly decent shape.  About six months ago I experienced pain in the left side of my chest, from the center of my rib cage and up.  There was also some pain in my left arm.  I went to see my doctor who performed an ECG.  That was fine.  Since I exercise fairly regularly, he did not suggest a stress test and so we left it at that.  A few months after that I had the pain again and went back.  Another ECG was normal and he suggested that it might be acid reflux and I should change my diet.  I did so and continued to exercise as I normally do without any problems.  Last week the pain came back again and this time was so intense in my arm that I ended up in the ER, where the attending doctor performed another ECG and, like all the others, this one came out fine.  I do not have high blood pressure, I have not been experiencing anything like shortness of breath or sweats, and I have not had any problems during my exercise periods.  I would assume that the problem must be something like acid reflux or a pulled muscle since all the ECG tests I have had have been normal.  Is there something that I could possibly be missing without any further tests?  The pain usually lasts for a few hours before it goes away.

[CCF CARDIO MD DLB]

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Dear Jordan
A normal EKG does not exclude serious heart disease. An exercise stress test is the usual method to evaluate for the presence of heart disease. It is up to your doctor to decide if it is reasonable to perform such testing on a healthy 29 year old. Alternatively, further work-up for acid reflux by a gastroenterologist (stomach doctor) might be useful
I hope this has been useful. I wish you the best of luck. Feel free to write back.
Information provided here is for general purposes only. Specific questions should be addressed to your own doctor. If you would like to make an appointment at the Cleveland Clinic Heart Center, please call 1-800-CCF-CARE or inquire online by using the Heart Center website at www.ccf.org/heartcenter. The Heart Center website contains a directory of the cardiology staff that can be used to select the physician best suited to address your cardiac problem.