Brief Answer:
I would recommend as follows:

Detailed Answer:
Hello!

Welcome on HCM!

I understand your concern, and would like to have some more information on your chest pain characteristics:

- Is the pain triggered by deep breathing or body movements? This would be indicative of a musculo-skeletal pain (including costochondritis which has been suggested by your doctor).
- Is the pain triggered by eating or bending over? This could indicate possible gastro-esophageal reflux or gastritis.
- Is the pain triggered by straining physical activity and relieved by resting? This could indicate a possible heart issue.

Coming to this point, I would recommend trying Ibuprofen. If it helps improve your situation, this would be another argument in favor of costochondritis or any other musculo-skeletal pain.

If this does not help, I would recommend trying an antiacid or PPI (omeprazole, pantoprazole). If these drugs help improve your situation, it would indicate gastro-esophageal reflux or gastritis as the main cause of your complaints.

To conclude, if the chest pain still persists, despite the above trials, I would recommend performing some tests to investigate for the possible causes:

- a chest X ray study
- complete blood count, PCR, ESR for inflammation
- a resting ECG and cardiac enzymes
- a cardiac ultrasound.

An exercise cardiac stress test would be necessary in case of altered ECG or cardiac enzymes.

Hope you will find this answer helpful!

Kind regards,

Dr. Iliri

---