Suggest Treatment For Shortness Of Breath While Lying Down

Posted on Thu, 2 Mar 2017

Question: I am having difficult breathing when I lie down in bed. It seems to happen during the night and I wake up some mornings @ 5:30 am not able to catch my breath until I sit up straight. I do have allergies, but this appears new since Thanksgiving. I can also hear be associated with a wheezing sound sometimes. It happens about once a week when humidity is above 85% and also when the cold temps drop below 27%. I am current with all shots, am not feverish, It appears to be similar to anxiety upper chest congestion. There is no pain and I have had a heart and lung scan and they were clear. Lack of sleep is killing me. Any suggestions?

Answered by Dr. Ilir Sharka (29 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
I would recommend performing some tests:

Detailed Answer:
Hello!

Welcome and thank you for asking on HCM!

Your symptoms could be related to asthma, but it is also necessary exclude a possible cardiac issue (like heart failure), which could lead to your troubles.

I recommend consulting with your attending physician for a careful physical exam and some tests:

- a resting ECG and a cardiac ultrasound to examine your heart function and structure
- respiratory function tests to exclude a lung disorder
- some blood lab tests (complete blood count, kidney and liver function tests, NT pro-BNP, blood electrolytes).

If all the above tests result normal, you should consider gastro-esophageal reflux as a possible cause. In such case using zantac or omeprazole before sleep would help.

You should discuss with your doctor on the above tests.

Hope to have been helpful!

Kind regards,

Dr. Iliri

Note: For further queries related to coronary artery disease and prevention, click here.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar