chest discomfort

[smc9975]

Back in late March I got really sick with the flu, became dehydraded, as well as it going into pnemonia (pneumonia), since then I have been diagnosed with having heart palps.I have had a cardic follow-up done because I keep getting pains in my heart as well as down my arms and across my back with shortness of breath. I have had ekg's, treadmill stress test, holter monitors and a event monitor,and a echo. all of my cardiac enzymes comes back good, except my crp panel came back at 9.6. Im a 30 year old female who gets moderate activity, changed my eating habits, could this be my heart? or is it something else? Im tired of er visits, and constant trips to the dr's, who now say it is all in my head. Im on atenaol 25mg 1x a day. could someone please help as I am living in constant fear of having a heart attack. Also there is no family history of heart disease, just mitral valve prolapse.
thank you for your time

[Cleveland Clinic]

smc,

thanks for the post.

At 30 its unlikely that coronary atherosclerosis is causing your problem unless you had a very strong family history or risk factor profile. Also, your level of CRP is a little higher than what we associate with the level of elevation from coronary disease.

I would think potentially coronary spasm could be causing your problem, but would also be more concerned of an underlying systemic process causing your symptoms.  I would look to a good internal medicine physician or possibly a rhuematologist to get started.


I dont think you are in immenant risk of a heart attack, but your symptoms do need to be evaluated.

good luck

[TA1616]

smc9975
I had the same issues and the sent me for an angiogram.  See below.  I hope you feel better because I can't stand going to Doctors either.


Hello All. I was having alot of the same issues mentioned in the thread and was told to have a cath then a TEE and a CT scan. They found a mass they are calling calcification on the heart wall. Has anyone had this before? I have been to 2 Thoracic surgeons who said not to worry about it and no further testing would be needed and another who wants to do a 64 slice CT and yet another who wants to do a cardiac mri. Any insight would be great. Thanks

[Healthyself2]

Maybe you had a heart attack and you are experiencing the residual pain and palps from that.  Probably not caused by a ruptured arterial plaque, but could have been something around the stress from your illness.  You should have some abnormality in an EKG though, if that was the case.

I would think that pericarditis is also a possibility, although it's pretty easily diagnosed.

Since my heart attack I've occasionally suffered what I call "inflammatory attacks" where my entire rib cage is painful. My doctor can never find the cause, but it's several days of agony when it happens.  It's usually after I've operated my heart for many hours at some level of ischemia, such as mountain climbing.  I think that it's a cascading inflammatory effect, but I'm sure that's not a medical diagnosis.

[smc9975]

If I had a heart attack wouldn't it have shown up in the blood work? or in any of the testing I have had done? It is just scary to know that you don't feel right and the dr's don't take me seriously. My husband thinks all this pain is from a air bag injury in June, is it possible inflammation could cause all of this pain?

[lisapep]

Well i am sorry to tag on to someones thread.  here is my question has anyone ever experienced a pressure feeling in the sternum while asleep to the point where you cant catch your breath.  Here is my what happened....I was asleep.. and suddenly i felt a heavy heavy feeling in the middle of my chest. Not heart, but chest like on my sternum.  I tried to wake up but felt like i could not catch  my breath.  when i woke up it went away except felt a little nervous.  then i went to sleep again shortly after waking up and the same thing happened.  Then fell asleep a 3rd time and was able to stay asleep no problems.  Not too sure if it iwas a panic attack or a palpitation.  has anyone ever experienced this?  Any insight would be wonderful

~L

[Healthyself2]

Yes the airbag certainly could have cracked a rib or your sternum which can be painful for quite a long time.  Or perhaps your heart or pericardium was bruised.

I don't know how long you have an elevated CRP level after a heart attack, but believe that it diminishes quickly.  An EKG should show some abnormality if that is the case.

Perhaps the fact that you have a slightly raised CRP points to inflammation somewhere.

[wazza]

Hi I have had pericarditis on and of for nearly two years mine has been caused by a infection however the cardiologists have told me it can be caused by an impact, an eco would rule out percarditis, good luck it is an extremly painful condition.

[ken4life]

Hi, I'm a 42 year old male.  Lead quite a sedentary life.  Probably eat more than I should.

Anyway, lately I've been waking up from sleep breathing heavily like I've just been running. I don't even have such a problem when I do run.

I notice that I get this need to breathe more whenever I lie down. Has anyone come across a similar situation?

Thanks.

[RowerLarry]

Chest Pain, Shortness of Breath, all tests negative ? My doctor said anxiety, despite family history being my only risk factor.

I just got back from vacation in Nicaragua, where a dozen bouts of severe angina took me to two cardiologists there.  I had EKGS, always negative, enzyme tests negative.  Ecko stress tess negative.

  But the cardiologists there said my pain HAD to be heart, and they put me on bed rest and meds for a week until we returned. Told me to go to an ER and get an angiogram when we returned.

We did go to ER, and got ht eangiogram, if a day later. I had stated I had recurring intermittent severe angina (order of adjectives not that critical, but all necessary). Despite all other tests negative, the two primary cardiac arteries were 99% blocked, and the third with multiple sites blocked over 80%.  I was scheduled for surgery at 10:00 AM the following morning.  That evening at 9:00 PM, I awoke with severe angina that lasted 9 minutes.  EKG showed nothing wrong.  They bumped my surgery to 7:00 AM, wondering if I would last that long.  I did.

Sometimes nothing but checking out the arteries directly will reveal the problem.  I had two incidents of shortness of breath with minor chest pain, one in 2002, one in March 2005. My doctor dismissed them both as anxiety, and said continue exercising (I am/was very fit, 6'0", 159 lbs).