What You Probably Did Not Know About Chest Pain

Experiencing chest pain should not be taken lightly. Chest pain can be related to a life-threatening heart condition or other causes that are not life-threatening. Therefore, you should seek medical attention anytime you experience chest pain. Luckily your Philadelphia chest pain specialist can help diagnose the cause of your chest pain and offer the proper treatment to save your life.

Causes of chest pain

There are different causes of chest pain, those that are heart-related and other causes. Heart-related causes include:

• Heart attack: caused when you have a blockage of your heart muscles by a blood clot.
• Aortic dissection: The condition occurs when your main heart artery’s inner layers separate, forcing blood to get in between the layers. The condition can cause your artery (aorta) to burst.
• Angina: This is a condition where your arteries become thin and limit blood supply into your heart due to the formation of wide plaque in your artery’s inner walls, which transfers blood to your heart.
• Pericarditis: A condition caused by inflammation of the sac encircling your heart due to viral infection.

Other causes of chest pain

Digestive issues like heartburn, gallbladder problem, and swallowing disorders. Lung problems like a collapsed lung, pulmonary embolism, pneumonia, and pleurisy. Bone and muscle problems such as injured ribs and sore muscles.

Chest pain diagnosis

When you go for chest pain treatment, your doctor will carry out some tests to determine the cause of your pain. Heart-related chest pain being a life-threatening condition, your doctor will carry out the test first. These include:

Blood Test

Your doctor will carry out the test to check if your enzymes or proteins’ levels in your heart muscles have risen. If you had a heart attack, it destroys your heart cells, permitting those molecules to leak into your blood.

Electrocardiogram (ECG)

Your doctor will do the test to evaluate and take down your heart’s electrical activity. The test may show if you have a heart attack or you have had it.

To check if your chest pain is due to lung problems, your doctor may recommend the following tests.

Chest X-ray

Your doctor will carry out this test to examine your lung condition, check for pneumonia and collapsed lung.

CT scan

To check if you have a blood clot in your lung and ensure you are free from an aortic dissection, your doctor will recommend you undergo a CT scan.

Chest pain treatment

Depending on the cause of your chest pain, your doctor will recommend different treatments that suit your condition.

If your chest pain is heart-related, your doctor may recommend some drugs like thrombolytic drugs, blood thinners, and artery relaxers.

If your chest pain is due to digestive issues like heartburn, your doctor may recommend acid-suppressing medication to reduce acid in your stomach.

If lung problems caused your chest pain, your doctor might recommend lung re-inflation if your lungs had collapsed and blood thinners if you have a clot in your artery that supplies blood to your lungs.

If you are experiencing sharp pain or a strange feeling in your chest, call or book an appointment online with Corrielus Cardiology.