How to know if chest pain is due to heart disease or not? Cardiology Basics
How to know if chest pain is due to heart disease or not? Cardiology Basics
It is not always possible to be certain about the origin of chest pain just by its characteristics as the variation between individuals is quite a bit. There can be a lot of overlap between symptoms due to heart disease and disease of other nearby organs.
Still some general observations are possible regarding chest pain originating from the heart. The typical pain of cardiac origin is a central chest pain which occurs on walking or other forms of exercise, known as effort angina. This pain is caused by insufficient blood supply to a region of the myocardium. Effort angina is commonly due to significant obstruction to a coronary artery. The pain can radiate to the neck, lower jaw, arms and upper abdomen. Occasionally, pain may be felt only at these regions, without pain in the chest. Then it is known as anginal equivalent. A heavy meal may also bring out similar pain as cardiac output increases during the digestive process due to enhanced splanchnic blood flow. This is known as postprandial angina and often indicates multivessel coronary artery disease. Pain is likely to be more if you are walking after a heavy meal. Pain occurring after a meal is likely to be mistaken to be gastrointestinal disorder.
Pain of effort angina will be more when you are walking uphill rather than downhill, due to the higher level of exertion. It can also be more when you are walking against the wind and while carrying a loa...
Source: Cardiophile MD - Category: Cardiology Authors: Johnson Francis Tags: General Cardiology Source Type: blogs
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