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What Causes Sudden Chest Tightness, Heavy Pounding Of Heart And Breathing Difficulty?
Question: I was sitting at my computer everything normal, then my chest tightened, heart started pounding, and i had difficulty breathing. This lasted for only a few seconds. What was that?
Brief Answer:
Some tests to exclude certain problems
Detailed Answer:
Hello. Thank you for your question and welcome to Health Care Magic. I understand your concern.
To start, you are young (32 years of age) to be considered as a patient with coronary problems. Let me take the XXXXXXX to describe angina (pain originated from a blockage in the coronary arteries) to you. It is described as a tightness or heaviness or squeezing pain in the mid chest, which radiates to both sides of the chest, the XXXXXXX and the left arm and shoulder. It may start immediately, but almost inherently it starts on physical effort and lasts 10-15 minutes. Only the description of your symptoms makes go to my opinion that this was not angina.
My opinion is that what you experienced was a palpitation. What is this? This is a combined sensation of a thump in the chest, followed by shortness of breath and (sometimes) a tightening feeling in the chest, like "your heart is jumping out of it". This is caused by a extrasystole or premature heart beat ("skipped heart beat"), during which, a certain part of the heart muscle "fires" an impulse, not the original pacemaker of the heart - the sinus node. This impulse is then followed by a very short pause after which sinus node "takes over the situation" by producing a strong, more forceful heart beat - the palpitation is sensed by the patient. These are totally benign phenomena which can happen to anyone, including me. These happen under normal physiological circumstances produces by physical activity, psychological stress, caffeine-containing beverages, hormonal changes throughout a day etc. If this is the case, then my opinion is there is nothing to worry about. However, just to be totally in the clear, I would recommend you an EKG (to evaluate the heart electrical and conduction systems) and I would not recommend further testing at this time. But, if this was a very worrisome phenomenon to you and was accompanied by excessive stress like "What is happening to me?", I would recommend you to be put on a 24-hour Holter rhythm monitor, which is basically an EKG spun into 24 hours.
I hope I was of help with my answer. I am happy to help, should you have follow-up questions. Please rate the answer, if you do not.
Kind regards,
Dr. Meriton
Some tests to exclude certain problems
Detailed Answer:
Hello. Thank you for your question and welcome to Health Care Magic. I understand your concern.
To start, you are young (32 years of age) to be considered as a patient with coronary problems. Let me take the XXXXXXX to describe angina (pain originated from a blockage in the coronary arteries) to you. It is described as a tightness or heaviness or squeezing pain in the mid chest, which radiates to both sides of the chest, the XXXXXXX and the left arm and shoulder. It may start immediately, but almost inherently it starts on physical effort and lasts 10-15 minutes. Only the description of your symptoms makes go to my opinion that this was not angina.
My opinion is that what you experienced was a palpitation. What is this? This is a combined sensation of a thump in the chest, followed by shortness of breath and (sometimes) a tightening feeling in the chest, like "your heart is jumping out of it". This is caused by a extrasystole or premature heart beat ("skipped heart beat"), during which, a certain part of the heart muscle "fires" an impulse, not the original pacemaker of the heart - the sinus node. This impulse is then followed by a very short pause after which sinus node "takes over the situation" by producing a strong, more forceful heart beat - the palpitation is sensed by the patient. These are totally benign phenomena which can happen to anyone, including me. These happen under normal physiological circumstances produces by physical activity, psychological stress, caffeine-containing beverages, hormonal changes throughout a day etc. If this is the case, then my opinion is there is nothing to worry about. However, just to be totally in the clear, I would recommend you an EKG (to evaluate the heart electrical and conduction systems) and I would not recommend further testing at this time. But, if this was a very worrisome phenomenon to you and was accompanied by excessive stress like "What is happening to me?", I would recommend you to be put on a 24-hour Holter rhythm monitor, which is basically an EKG spun into 24 hours.
I hope I was of help with my answer. I am happy to help, should you have follow-up questions. Please rate the answer, if you do not.
Kind regards,
Dr. Meriton
Note: For further queries related to coronary artery disease and prevention, click here.
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Raju A.T
Answered by
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