Chest Burning

Hi, I'm 25 male, and recently have been having a burning sensation on the left chest. I feels like it's on the left pectoral, about an inch away from the sternum, and runs from about nipple level up toward the collar bone a few inches. Several days ago, it felt like a pain more than burning, and when I would stick my chest out and bring my shoulders back, that's when it hurt the most. Now that it is a burning sensation, I can't seem to find an muscular connection to the reason it feels this way. Sometimes I think it is sensitive to the touch, but hard to tell. Does this burning sensation sound like it could be a symptom of the heart ? I know what GERD feels like, and this isn't it, because it's not in the middle of my chest. I'm not used to this type of feeling with pulled muscles either. I am going through an anxious period as well, so I've had other symptoms like heart palpitations, fluttering, chest pain, etc. I also had an EKG done recently, which was normal. Would the normal EKG results give you a good enough feeling that this is not heart related ? Or is the EKG only part of the picture ? I'm quite young, i understand, to have heart problems, and I should see my doctor about this, but looking for a bit of piece of mind. Any other tests I should recommend to my doctor ? He always seems to think that it's no big deal, but I can't let it leave my mind. Thanks for any input!

[Douglas Bogart, MD]

It seems unlikely that the symptoms are from your heart but  you could talk to your doctor about an exercise echocardiogram which would help exclude a cardiac cause for the symptoms.