AboutDavid Richardson Expertise Adult heart function and disease. Not very good about children lesss than 12. Hypertension is o.k. Heart rhythm a special interest.
Experience Certified in cardiology by the American Board of Internal Medicine. Was chairman of division of cardiology at the Medical College of Virginia. Am now mostly retired.
Organizations Fellow of American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology and member of American Physiological Society..
Publications Circulation, American Heart Journal, Hypertension.
Education/Credentials M.D. from Harvard Medical School. Residency training at Yale Uhniversity School of Medicine and Medical College of Virginia.
Awards and Honors Gold Heartt Award from American Heart Association in 1995.
Question I'm a 24 yr old male, 5ft 11inches, 206lbs, and the past year or so I've been very inactive. I've been experiencing this left side chest pain and left arm pain for about 2 yrs now. It's very localized to one spot on the left side of my chest and doesn't reproduce the pain from pressing in the area. I've seen 4 cardiologist, and 2 cardiologist nurse practioners. I had stress test 3 years ago, normal, and recently within the past 6 months had echo, event monitor, egk's, and chest x-ray, all normal. Cholesterol is 245, with tri-256, hdl-39, and ldl 156. Most the time my b/p runs 128/78 but sometimes when I'm hurting or anxious I check it at the drug store and it will be around 156/95. I've also been waking up left side chest pain and sweating. It's pretty much there all the time, the pain, like a dull ache and just intesifies at random times throughout the day. It's like a gripping, pinching like pain right in my heart, with discomfort in areas of my left arm. I played volleyball yesterday and just from barely running around I was short of breath and my heartrate was around 160, and my pulse was extremely forceful in my chest and throat, like my heart was about to beat out of me. It's been getting worse it seems like the past week or so, I've been waking up in the middle of the night with the pain, and cold sweats,shortness of breath,and feeling lightly nauseus, and I sit there for awhile feeling horrible and within an hour or so it kinda fades away and I'm able to fall back asleep, its been around 2-4am that it will do this. 1. Do I need to have further testing?
2.The cardio's seem to think this is not my heart but doesn't this sound like classic angina, or heart related symptoms???
4.Would the test's that I've had, had caught anything if there was something wrong?
5.Does this sound like pain from blockages??
6.Does my above situation from playing volleyball yesterday indicate anything?
Thanks so much.
Answer Dear Michael,
I'm sorry you're having all this trouble
1. Further testing is unlikely to help.
1. Doesn't sound at all like angina, which is brought on by exercise and relieved in 5 minutes by rest. It's very unlikely to be heart related at your age with a normal echo.
4. Yes the tests you had would have detected any heart disorder,
5. No, it doesn't sound like pain from blockages.
6. The situation with volley ball indicates your inactivity over the past year.
