BBB Chest Pains - Not Heart Attack Symptoms

Stress?

Actually, those can be symptoms of a heart attack, particularly in a female, but the tests done in the ER may not immediately reveal the problem.

Several years ago, my mother had the same sort of symptoms, but the ER tests did not suggest or confirm a heart attack. She was quite sure it was a heart attack, however, and she was admitted to the hospital as a precaution. Two or three days after admission, blood work confirmed an elevation in cardiac enzymes which indicated some damage to her heart muscle, indicative of a slight heart attack. However, at no time were there changes in her EKG. The cardiac enzyme elevation was considered more reliable in determining what had occurred. Slight heart attacks can be missed on ER evaluations.
You can read about cardiac enzymes here
http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4477

A few months prior to the above event, my mother had had a chemical stress test, rather than an exercise stress test, to evaluate her complaints of pressure in her chest. That test did indicate an area of some arterial occlusion, but my mother's doctor (an excellent cardiologist) questioned the test result, and did not think the situation required further action at that point. After her slight heart attack, the one noted above, she had angiography and angioplasty and a stent was inserted in the artery that had shown blockage on the earlier chemical test (the artery was 70% blocked). Whether that artery had been the area where her slight heart attack occurred was never determined, but she has had no recurrence of the same constellation of symptoms--jaw pain, shoulder and back pain, and chest pain--since that time (almost 8 years ago).

Hopefully, your mother's stress test will either shed more light on the problem, or rule it out as being of cardiac origin.

Gallbladder problems, and gallstones, can sometimes produce pains quite similar to a heart attack.

Perhaps angina?

Firefly, thanks so much for your mother's information. I hope to know more after my Wednesday stress test. I'm a big mystery to everyone.

Today, Monday, I'm doing laundry and goofing off with Butrflynet and doggies Dolly and Madison.

BBB

a producer on a radio show i listen to had Pericarditis, said it felt just like a heart attack, it's an inflammation of the sac around the heart
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pericarditis

Yep, my dad was diagnosed with that while undergoing his double by-pass in the '80's.

I've been reading up on the blood enzymes and angina and have a list of questions for the doctor who will be doing the stress test on Wednesday.


BBB will undergo the medication stress test rather than the physical stress test so perhaps that will be more revealing.

Thank you all for the additional avenues to investigate.

Has there been a dental/jaw work-up?

djjd62, thanks for the info. I will pass the question along to my physician.

BBB

The physician was concerned about the jaw pain just before the chest pain and is testing re it.

BBB

That was my thouht too. an abcess might be causing poison to enter the blood system

Jaw pain, particularly accompanied by chest pain, is not uncommon when there is insufficient oxygen supply to the heart, as is the case with a clot in an artery (heart attack), or a narrowing of the coronary arteries.

You might experience that same pain again during the chemical stress test you are going to have. My mother said it felt like she had an elephant on her chest during a brief period of her chemical stress test. When she actually had a heart attack, about two months later, she said the jaw and chest pain were worse than what she experienced during the stress test which is why she instinctively knew she was having a heart attack.

I hope all goes well with your stress test, BBB. Let us know what happens.

The test is tomorrow morning - supposed to be for about 3 hours so won't have any news until after lunch time.

Thanks for the good wishes.

Good wishes from me.

Ill bet its an intercostal cardial muscle thing going on. The rib musculature does weaken with age and this can cause pain in the chest area and can radiate to the arm, neck, even the ears. I had a major injury to my iCC muscles from an explosion and it soread my ribs a bit. 10 years after, I had what I thought was a heart attack. I hadda wear a bigass ACE bandage till the inflamation healed(Its an inflamation )

That is a possibility - she was diagnosed with a torn rotator cup about 10 years ago when she first moved here.

She hasn't had any complaints about soreness in her mouth. Is someone with full upper and lower dentures still susceptible to dental abcesses?

My mother did not receive the results immediately after the test. The nuclear images had to be evaluated and both my mother and her cardiologist received the results within a few days. However, if BBB experiences chest pain or chest pressure during the drug administration portion of the test it's probably an indication of some coronary artery narrowing/stenosis.

I was in the room with my mother during her test. She was calm, I really wasn't. It bothered me to see my mother in physical distress during the drug administration and I was nervous to see her heart rate and blood pressure increase as much as they did. I was simply worried about her and about how much her body could tolerate. None of this lasts very long and everything then returns to normal. But I really felt as though I had been through a stress test of my own when it was over. That might just be me.

Yeah, I'm not looking forward to witnessing it. I've seen her experiencing a high rate of rapid heart beat due to potassium deficiency several times already. In California, I had to take her to the ER a couple times for that.

These recent chest pains were entirely different. A couple of times it had her doubled over and clutching at her upper body as if it were a cramp or pulled muscle. She didn't experience the feeling of pressure on her chest.

I wasn't prepared for the fact that the drug administration could produce significant chest pain, although the person doing the test explained that it might. I was disturbed by the sight of my mother in pain, and I was afraid she'd have a heart attack as a result of what was being done to her. That can happen, but it's very rare, and she was in the best possible place if that had happened. You're probably better prepared for the testing than I was at the time.

Oh, we've made many ER trips with my mother due to various electrolyte imbalances--potassium too high or hyponatremia (sodium too low due to sudden excess fluid retention)--as well as episodes of bradycardia or slow heartbeat (her heartbeat would drop to about 32 for two days, then return to normal all on its own). There were periods when these things would occur and recur, then they would finally just stop and never happen again. They never could figure out any underlying cause for any of these problems, and, other than immediate symptomatic treatment, they required no further care. So, BBB isn't the only one who presents diagnostic mysteries. Mothers like that help to keep doctors on their toes--and their daughters busy.

Good luck tomorrow.