Various Type Of Chest Pain
A chest pain always brings the fear of a heart attack. However, the pain in the chest is not always due to a heart attack, as it can occur due to lung problems, indigestion, esophageal problems, or injury or trauma to the muscles, ribs and/or nerves. So, depending on the kind of pain a person experiences, there are various types of chest pain. |
There are primarily 2 kinds of chest pain, and they are cardiac related pain and non-cardiac related pain. The cardiac related pain is caused due to a problem with heart and some of the causes of the heart problems are as follows:
- Angina: This pain occurs when the artery supplying blood to the heart gets blocked. As a result the heart receives insufficient amount of oxygen resulting in pain in the heart. Here the heart is not damaged permanently.
- Heart attack: This is quite similar to an angina, but a heart attack causes excruciating pain and is more severe in nature. Here too the attack is brought on due to insufficient supply of oxygenated blood to the heart, and this insufficiency causes the heart tissue to die. This results in permanent damage to the heart and it adversely affects the working of the heart. A heart attack is life-threatening and requires immediate medical treatment.
- Myocarditis: When the muscle of the heart gets inflamed, it is known as myocarditis. The person will have symptoms very similar to a heart attack along with fever, problems in breathing and extreme tiredness.
- Pericarditis: When the sac surrounding the heart gets inflamed, it causes pain that is quite similar to the pain felt during an angina. The pain is constant and can radiate to the shoulder and the upper part of the neck. It can also worsen while breathing, eating food or lying on the back.
- Mitral valve prolapse: This occurs when the valve of the heart does not close properly causing the blood to leak out from one chamber to the next. It results in pain in the chest, dizziness as well as palpitation.
Other cardiac causes of pain in the chest include heart failure and coronary artery dissection. There are still several more cardiac causes for chest pain that are not mentioned here.
The non-cardiac causes for pain in the chest are conditions that are not related to the heart. Some of these causes include hiatal hernia, problems with the gallbladder, problems with the pancreas, indigestion, heartburn, and a swallowing disorder known as achalasia. You can also get chest pain due to problems with the muscles, like fibromyalgia, injury caused to the ribs, pinched nerves, pulmonary disorders and cancer, and shingles.
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Thanks to the unhealthy lifestyle that people are leading, chest pain is quite common nowadays. But, when a person complains of left side chest pain, he or she invariably gets anxious worried as this is one of the symptoms of heart attack. Hence, left side chest pain should never be neglected. However, at the same time there could be other causes for the pain.