Chest Pain

Is this your symptom?

• Pain or discomfort in the chest (front or back)
• The chest includes from the top to the bottom of the rib cageExcludes pain due to injury to the chest

Causes of Chest Pain

There are many problems that can cause chest pain. The pain can range from a sharp stab to a dull ache. It can feel crushing, burning or tearing or can be like an ache or heavy feeling in the chest. Sometimes, the pain goes up the neck, and/or into the jaw. It can also go into the back or down one or both arms. The most serious causes can be life-threatening. They can often be treated successfully when diagnosised quickly. For that reason, it's important to seek help right away.

Less Serious Causes

• Muscle Overuse. Chest pain can follow hard work-outs or activities (such as throwing a baseball). Lifting (such as weights) or upper body work (such as digging) can also cause it. This type of muscle soreness often increases with movement of the shoulders.
• Muscle Cramps. Most brief chest pain, lasting seconds to minutes, is from muscle cramps. The ribs are separated by muscles. These fleeting pains can also be caused by a pinched nerve. These chest wall pains are harmless. Brief muscle cramps are also the most common cause of recurrent chest pains.
• Coughing. Chest pain commonly occurs with a hacking cough. Coughing can cause sore muscles in the chest wall, upper abdomen or diaphragm.
• Asthma. People with active asthma often have chest tightness. They may refer to this as chest pain. They also get chest pain when they have lots of coughing.
• Heartburn is due to reflux of stomach contents. It usually causes a burning pain under the lower sternum (breastbone).
• Caffeine. A rapid and pounding heart beat may feel like chest pain. Too much caffeine (in energy drinks, colas and coffee) is a common cause. Drugs taken for ADHD also can cause a fast heartbeat. Illegal drugs, such as cocaine, can also cause a high heart rate.

More Serious Causes

• Chest Wall Injury. Blunt trauma, such as falling onto something or a blow to the chest (thrown object or impact with another person during sports) usually just causes a bruised rib. Sometimes, it causes a broken rib (fracture). Pain from broken ribs may last for several weeks before starting to ease.
• Heart Disease (serious). Heart disease is a common and important cause of chest pain in adults. Chest pain that only occurs with exercise could have a cardiac cause. It is important to seek care right away if this happens. It may be possible to get life-saving treatment at this stage before the condition gets worse and becomes life-threatening. This sort of cardiac chest pain is usually due narrowing of the blood vessels that carry oxygen to the heart muscles. Heart pain can also occur if the heart starts to beat abnormally. You may feel it beating too fast, too slow or with an uneven beat. Sometimes a change in heart rate or rhythm only lasts for a few minutes and does not cause any other symptoms. But it can occur with dizziness, fainting, chest pain or difficulty breathing. See your doctor if any of these occur.
• Pleurisy (serious) is an infection near the surface of the lung that causes pain as you take a breath. It can happen with pneumonia. If the infection involves the lung's surface, that area of the chest will hurt.
• Pulmonary Embolus (serious) occurs when a clot from somewhere in the body (often the legs) travels through the blood stream and gets trapped in the lungs. A large clot can be life-threatening. Symptoms include breathlessness, chest pain and coughing up blood.

Pain Scale

• Mild: you feel some pain, but it does not keep you from any normal activities. Work, chores and sleep are not changed.
• Moderate: the pain keeps you from doing some normal activities. It may wake you up from sleep.
• Severe: the pain is very bad. It keeps you from doing all normal activities.