What Causes Tingling Sensation In Arm, Shortness Of Breath And Chest Discomfort?

Posted on Fri, 19 Feb 2016

Question: Good evening. About a couple of month ago, I had an strong argue with a family member. I was driving my car, and the discussion was over the phone. We I hanged off the phone, I felt like the air I was breathing was not enough, and I started getting anxious, my heart rate when up to 120 bpm. I felt tingle sensation in my arms, and a little of chest discomfort. I thought I was having a cardiac arrest. That happened about 4 more times since that day, always starts with shortness of breath or a tingling sensation in the epigastric region. I went to get ECG, the results were abnormal, but my cardiologist said this is related to my chronic l lung disease that is asthma. Also the ECG did not showed past myocardial infarction. My asthma is under control as well, I get whizzing every now and then but goes away fast with my rescue inhaler. So I started to wander, since I survived this 5 episodes where my vitals returned to normal 15 - 30 minutes after having wthose symptoms described above, it couldn't be cardiac arrest or respiratory arrest or I would be dead by now, so an idea came to my mind, what about Panic Attacks disorder. Looking forward to read your professional opinion.
Respectfully:
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Answered by Dr. Shubham Mehta (42 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
Suggestive of panic attack.

Detailed Answer:
Hello Dear Yasmany,
Welcome to HCM.
I have gone through your query thoroughly.
I can understand your concerns.

Asthma, Cardiac symptoms and symptoms of panic attack are very overlapping.

Panic attack/disorder is a diagnosis of exclusion. Meaning that, panic attack is only labelled when the common medical causes (Cardiac and respiratory) are ruled out as cause of the same.

That time when you had argument with your family member, the symptoms developed after that. Your physician also feels that it wasn't related to your heart and asthma.

So, onset of such symptoms after a stressor with no obvious medical cause strongly points towards a panic attack.

I agree with your physician that you should consult a psychiatrist. Relaxation techniques like biofeedback and meditation can help.

Hope you find this information useful.
Feel free to discuss further if you have more doubts.

Regards.
Dr. Shubham Mehta, MD (Psychiatry).

Note: For further guidance on mental health, Click here.

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