Chest Pain
Chest pain
It is defined as pain in chest which is in some cases radiated to the jaw arm and up to the neck. Pain type may be dull, sharp stabbing pain and sometime feels like crushing and burning pain.
Symptoms
Signs and symptoms of chest pain include:
- Nausea
- Dizziness
- Pressure on chest
- Chest tightness
- Crushing pain
- Shortness of breath
- Cold sweats
- Trouble swallowing
- Tenderness
- Change of pain severity by changing body position
Causes
Causes of chest pain can be divided related to origin of pain. Some causes include:
Heart related pain due to:
- Angina
- Myocardial infarction
- Aortic dissection
- Pericardial effusion
- Inflammation of pericardium called pericarditis
Digestion related pain in chest due to:
- Swallowing difficulties
- Heart burn
- Gallbladder and pancreas problems
Pain due to bone and muscles disease:
- Trauma to the rib cage
- Costochondritis
- Sore muscles
Pain due to lungs disorder:
- Collapsed lung
- Pleurisy
- Pulmonary embolism
- Pulmonary hypertension
Diagnosis
Chest pain can be diagnosis by:
- Electrocardiogram (ECG) to check the electrical activity of the heart
- Blood tests to rule out the other causes and check the complete blood count
- Chest X-ray to visualize the proper image of heart and lungs.
- Computerized tomography (CT scan) to see the blood clot in cases of pulmonary embolism
Treatment
Treatment options include:
Medications.
- Thrombolytic drugs to dissolve the clot.
- Blood thinner to prevent clotting
- Artery relaxant to decrease pressure from the arteries
- Aspirin if pain is due to angina
- Acid suppressing medicine for digestive causes of chest pain
Surgical process.
- Lungs reinflation
- Angioplasty
- Stent placement
- Bypass surgery
- Dissection repairment of aorta