intermittent chest/jaw and upper back pain

[angihart]

Hi, I am a 41 year old female with intermittent central chest pain which accompanies a jabbing or sharp throb in my jaw directly over my carotid artery.  I first noticed the pain when I attempted to excercise on my newly purchased treadmill.  At that time, I was only on the machine for about 5 minutes and the pain also had included pain in my upper left arm.  I passed it off as being stress but the next time, the same symptons happened. I have been alot of similar pains since, pretty much daily that can be brought on by walking or when I get up in the am.  One day, they were unrelenting so I went to the emergency department.  They did an ECG and chest x-ray and blood test, put on a nitro  patch, gave me aspirin.  They did several more ECG's and X-rays.  My blood pressure which is normally 140/90 shot up to 190 over something ( I forget ). The next thing I Knew, I was put on nitro drip, given Plavix and Metroprinol and then Heparin and I was admitted to the CCU. The next day I had an angiogram which showed my arteries are clear. It did however show ventricular changes and mild disease.  I was released from the hospital with Pantaloc for my stomach.  Yesterday, the hospital called me because they want to do an echocardiogram..I thought that a clear angiogram ruled out any problems with my heart.  I do however still have the intermittent jaw/chest/arm and upper back pains.  Can you please give me your thoughts?

[Seanboe]

Well first of all a normal BP of 140/90 is borderline hypertensive. You could have some minor Hypertrophy of the ventricles which basically means your heart is a little bigger. An echocardiogram is better at showing the actual structure of the heart and will help determine if that is the case. An angiogram shows the arteries. You could have angina which basically means chest pain. It could be from spasms of the coronary arteries this can be brought on by exercise. Are you on any high blood pressure medicines? All the symptoms indicate something cardiac. I hope they figure it out quickly good luck.    

[whlcat]

I also had jaw as well as chin pain just before my heart attack.  I was finally told that sometimes women present with different symptoms than men and some doctors overlook it.