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Severe Breathlessness, Occasional Chest Pain, Test Reports All Normal. Possible Reason?
My 11 year old son is a keen footballer but suffers from severe breathlessness. This began approximately 2.5 years ago. Recently it has also resulted in chest pain mainly on right side but occasionally on left. He also describes a really deep pain around the pulse in his neck on right side. Many tests have been done, x-rays of heart and lungs, ecg and pulmonary breathing test which are all apparantley normal, hard to believe when I myself, witnessed him hanging onto the treadmill for dear life as he was so out of breath after only 7 minutes. He was always very energetic and constantly on the go but now after 5 minutes (literally) on the football pitch he seems to hit a brick wall and all his energy drains immediately. This is now having a severe psycological effect on him as he is not able to participate at the level of the rest of his team mates. He has a very promising future which seems to be slipping through his fingers. Can you shed any light on this? From a very worried Mum. Edinburgh. Thankyou in advance for your time.
Wed, 16 Jan 2013
Hi, thanks for using healthcare magic
Shortness of breath is usually related to conditions of the heart , lungs. There are other potential cause shortness of breath such as anemia, problems related to the musculoskeletal system, endocrine system or psychological causes.
The tests that he had done would have identified any problems in the heart and lungs- the only other additional cardiac investigation would be an echo but if the ecg was normal , the doctors may not think that it is necessary.
Other additional tests would be a full blood count and an ESR. The ESR would determine whether there is any evidence of inflammation in the body and if it is elevated then further investigations would be conducted.
Hope this helps
Shortness of breath is usually related to conditions of the heart , lungs. There are other potential cause shortness of breath such as anemia, problems related to the musculoskeletal system, endocrine system or psychological causes.
The tests that he had done would have identified any problems in the heart and lungs- the only other additional cardiac investigation would be an echo but if the ecg was normal , the doctors may not think that it is necessary.
Other additional tests would be a full blood count and an ESR. The ESR would determine whether there is any evidence of inflammation in the body and if it is elevated then further investigations would be conducted.
Hope this helps
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