Submitted by Dr T on December 6, 2011 – 12:19pm
in
Question:
Dear Dr.I am a 34 year old man having heaviness & tightness in my left chest towards the left arm. It actually started about a 10 years back not regularly but occassionally when I am too tensed. But from the last 2 years it occurs very frequently and even daily the whole working hours. One thing I have noticed is that it comes whenever I have too pressure in my work or when I am tensed. I do not have problem in my breathing, I do not have problem in doing exercises, walking or even sometimes running. I had undergone ECG check ups and the doctors had said everything is normal. But when the heaviness comes I feel like that my left hand side of chest and arm is going to get paralised or similar to that effect I am getting. It may remains for long hours and sometimes I feel too sleepy. I am worried that if it is related to any hear desease. Please do advice
Hi Gireesh,
A cardiac cause of your pain such Coronary Artery Disease has not yet been excluded.
Rather than just an echocardiogram, you should probably have a stress echo of your heart if other factors also suggest that you may have heart disease; an ECG alone is insufficient.
You can test whether you are at risk here, and also with these two specific chest pain questionnaires:
https://www.cardiachealth.org/app/chest-pain.php
https://www.cardiachealth.org/personal-chest-pain-evaluation
Hope this helps
Dr T