Chest Pain Causes

• Harmless Causes of Chest Pain
• Respiratory Problems
• Tests to Diagnose Chest Pain
• Heart-Related Causes
• Digestion Problems Causing Chest Pain
• Organs Possibly Causing Chest Pain

Chest pain is always alarming due its common association with heart attacks, and proximity to many vital organs like lungs, heart, ribs and the spinal chord. Chest pain cause can come be infections, inflammation, trauma, malignancy and other abnormal processes.

Harmless Causes of Chest Pain

Count out these common harmless causes of chest pains:

• Drinking lots of coffee of consuming too much caffeine
• Hyperventilation
• Anxiety attack
• Breathing in cold air
• Heartburn
• Reflux
• Alcohol consumption
• Smoking
• Stomach Acid Reflux (GERD)
• Drugs like Encainide Hydrochloride or Enkaid
• Interaction of medications and alcohol

Respiratory Problems Causing Chest Pain

Chest pains can be caused by serious or life-threatening respiratory conditions:

• Pneumothorax
• Pneumonia
• Acute bronchitis
• Bronchiolitis
• Asthma
• COPD
• Severe coughing
• Pulmonary embolism
• Pulmonary edema
• Lung cancer

Tests to Diagnose Chest Pain

Possible (blood) tests

• General appearance - heart attack, dissecting aneurysm or pulmonary embolism patients experience heavy sweating, pale skin
• Complete blood count to reveal in infectious process
• Cardiac assays to check for cardiac conditions
• EKG
• Chest X-ray - check for heart or a respiratory disease
• Continuous cardiac monitoring is also done to watch for cardiac arrhythmias
• Listening with a stethoscope to the the heart and lungs - wheezing may indicate asthma, and a bubbling sound may point to congestive heart failure or pneumonia
• Pulse oximetry - clipping a painless device to the fingertip, which can measure the amount of oxygen in the blood
• Blood pressure - if significantly high must consider dissecting aneurysm or heart attack
• Body temperature - might show pneumonia or pericarditis
• Additional blood tests
• Culture and sensitivity tests
• Pulmonary function test
• CT scan
• Nuclear scans
• MRI
• Check pulse on the wrist and femoral in the groin. Absence of pulse in groin is a sign of dissecting aneurysm

Cardiovascular Causes

• Heart attack
• Dissecting aortic aneurysm
• Angina
• Pericarditis
• Heart failure
• Cardiac arrhythmias

Digestive Problems Causing Chest Pain

Chest pain can also occur as a result of gastrointestinal problems as with problems of the

• Esophagus
• Small intestine
• GERD
• Peptic ulcer
• Indigestion
• Pancreatitis or gallstones

Organs Possibly Causing Chest Pain

The list of organs typically affected by Chest pain may include, but is not limited to:

• Chest
• Heart
• Lungs
• Muscle
• Ribs