Intermitten Chest Pain

[MikeZ80]

Over the past year I have had a few episodes lasting 1-3 days where I get a dull chest tightness in my upper left chest.  It lasts about 5-10 seconds and then subsides for a few minutes, sometimes longer or shorter, before returning again.  I have no other symptoms during the episodes other than the pain...no shortness of breath, no pain anywhere else, and normal pulse and BP.  About 6 months ago it lasted a few days and I went to the ER.  They did blood work, an EKG and chest x-ray and nothing came up.  I followed up with my PCP and he had me do more blood work and get an heart echo done.  The only issue that came up was that my cholesterol was a little elevated, and he started me on Pravastatin.  There were no issues with the echo.  The pain started a few days ago and I called my PCP, who advised it sounded muscular and to take Motrin.  I did and it relieved the pain for the rest of the day.  The next day it returned and I have had it since, despite continuing with the Motrin and heating pad.  I saw him today and had a EKG done and he said that everything looked fine.  Of course while the EKG was being done I did not have any pain, which seems to always be the case.  He gave me a prescription for Xanax and said to take one and the pain should go away in 30 minutes.  He believes that it is stress.  I am a little nervous to start taking a stress medication and still feel that it is something heart related.  Any advice?

[Cleveland Clinic]

It does sound fairly atypical to be heart related pain, but if you want to be sure undergo a stress test to clinch the diagnosis. This may even be simply an exercise EKG, which should bring about your pain and then this will have to be correlated with you EKG at the time. We will also be able to know your exercise capacity, which is a powerful predictor of survival in patient with coronary disease.

[gonziiii]

I agree with u, it seems to be heart related and u can verify that by trying gtn or isordil under ur tongue, if the pain goes away then its heart related. Also u can get a home bp monitor and check ur bp when the pain starts, if its high then u report to ur dr and he will give u drugs to relieve d burden on ur heart and lower ur bp, a coronary angio may be necesary to rule out coronary dx. hope this helps