Before a more detailed disclosure of this topic, it is necessary to clarify that heart pain is by no means a joke. If you suspect this condition, you should consult a doctor, because without a detailed history and banal studies (ECG, auscultation of the heart, etc.), an accurate diagnosis is impossible. How to recognize heart pain from another? This will be discussed in the article.
Signs of heart pain
It is worthwhile to understand that the position common to many people: “If pain gives to the left hand, then it means a problem with the heart” is incorrect. The so-called “recoil” (it is also the irradiation of pain) with pathologies of the heart may not be in the left side of the body in general, let alone the left arm. If something hurts on the left side, then this is not necessarily the heart.
Consider the signs of several heart diseases, a clear sign of which is chest pain.
Angina pectoris
How heart pain manifests itself in the form of an angina attack:
- The pain with this pathology is compressive, pressing, sometimes burning. It is worth noting: breathing or a change in the position of the patient’s body affects the intensity of the pain will be practically nonexistent.
- Angina pectoris will occur with physical and emotional stress of a person. Although it can also be at rest, even during sleep, but this is less common.
- When inhaling, pricks in the heart.
- Duration is from 2 to 15 minutes.
- It is localized in the sternal region, sometimes “gives” to the hands (often to the left), but not always, irradiation may well be in the back, neck, and also the lower jaw.
Pericarditis
Pericarditis has the following symptoms of heart pain:
- With pericarditis, the pain is acute and dull of varying intensity.
- It does not grow immediately, but gradually, at the peak of the process it can decrease and even disappear, but after it intensifies again. Often, changes are associated with the position of the body and breathing of the patient.
- Duration of several days.
- Localization will be in the sternum, sometimes radiating to the neck, back, and also to the shoulders and to the epigastric region.
Aortic dissection
Aortic dissection manifests itself in the following symptoms of heart pain:
- The pain is very intense and often has a wavy character.
- The onset is instant, often against the background of arterial hypertension, sometimes with physical and emotional stress. There is also the presence of neurological symptoms.
- Duration with a very large spread, can be from several minutes to several days.
- Localization in the sternum with “recoil” along the spinal column and along the branches of the aorta (to the stomach, back, neck and ears).
Tela
How to identify heart pain in pulmonary embolism (pulmonary embolism)
- The pain is acute and intense, there is a high probability of shock development, it happens against the background of very pronounced shortness of breath.
- It appears suddenly, and against the background of a long bed rest, after surgery on the abdomen, pelvis, lower extremities. In people suffering from thrombophlebitis, moreover, during exercise.
- Duration is from 15 minutes up to several hours.
- When inhaling, pricks in the heart.
- It is localized in the center of the sternum or mainly in the left and right half of the chest, it all depends on the side of the lesion directly.
Remember that, despite the progress in medicine, heart disease occupy one of the leading positions in mortality (according to WHO). Therefore, carefully monitor your health and do not neglect the appeal to specialists. Remember that procrastination and self-medication can be fatal.
How to distinguish heart pain from others?
People who are completely far from medicine, for some reason, believe that if a pulling or acute pain occurs in the chest, then something is wrong with the heart. This is not entirely true, since chest pains can occur not only due to impaired heart function, but also for many other reasons.
You should not panic if pain occurs in the chest area, but you should not relax either, since any pain is a signal that some internal organ is malfunctioning. Naturally, the most dangerous are heartaches, so it is necessary to distinguish the pain associated with the heart from other types of pain.
Causes of chest pain
Often, pain in the chest occurs due to osteochondrosis, in which the nerve roots are pinched, and this leads to the appearance of a sharp pain in the back, which gives to the thoracic region. To a person suffering from osteochondrosis, it may seem that the heart is sick, since the pain is similar in nature. The main thing is to establish the cause and know how to recognize heart pain.
It is quite difficult to distinguish heart pain from pain in osteochondrosis, but it is possible, since in the second case, pain can appear with a sudden turn of the head, from sudden movements, as well as with prolonged sitting in a not very comfortable position or with a strong cough. In addition, the pain associated with a disease of the spine can last not only days, but also months, and pain in case of cardiac abnormalities is often paroxysmal and stops after taking special drugs.
You can confuse heart pain with pain caused by any stomach disease. In this case, you need to pay attention to the situations in which pain occurs, what kind of pain it is, what additional signs accompany it. So, for example, if chest pain is associated with a stomach disease, then it can be aching or dull, much less often a person can feel dagger or acute pain. In addition, with diseases of the stomach, pain can appear immediately after eating or on an empty stomach. Pain in any gastrointestinal disease is often accompanied by some additional symptoms, such as vomiting, heaviness in the abdomen, belching, gas formation, heartburn, or nausea.
With real heart pains, none of these signs occurs, but a person can feel severe weakness, he begins to panic, there is a fear of death. Very often, people confuse heart pain with pain with neuralgia, and this is not surprising, since in both cases similar additional symptoms appear that accompany the pain syndrome. But here you can find significant differences, since pain with neuralgia often torments a person at night, they do not subside even if the patient is at rest.
Pain can increase significantly with bending, taking a deep breath, as well as walking or a sharp change in body position. In addition, severe pain occurs when you click on the gap between the ribs. It should be noted that with neuralgia, pain can be longer than cardiac, in addition, they intensify with stress or severe excitement and are not removed when taking nitroglycerin. If pain has occurred with impaired heart function, then such pains last, as a rule, for several minutes, and they can be eliminated with nitroglycerin or Validol.
It is also important to understand severe pain syndromes. How to recognize heart pain in this case? After all, unpleasant sensations in the chest can also appear for other reasons, for example, with VSD, neurosis, severe depression, and they are accompanied by arrhythmia and sudden pressure surges. All these additional signs confuse a person even more and create the illusion of disturbances in the work of the heart. The most interesting thing is that a person can really feel the frantic beats of the heart, but this is nothing more than a game of imagination. The fact is that people suffering from VVD and other above-mentioned problems have a tendency to hysteria, and their imagination with any problems with the body simply completes the picture. The peculiarities of pain in the case of VVD and neurosis are that they pass very quickly as soon as the patient calms down, in addition, such pain may last for several days, and they usually arise against the background of nervous shocks and stresses.
How to distinguish neuralgia from heart pain?
It is not always possible for doctors to diagnose diseases, for example, it is very difficult to understand how neuralgia differs from heart pain. A person himself will not be able to determine what is the cause of pain in the chest.
In order to know how to distinguish neuralgia from heart pain, you should understand the signs of the first.
Neuralgia is characterized by bouts of burning, numbness of parts of the body, pain can occur under the ribs, shoulder blades. The reasons can be different, for example, problems with the nervous system, as well as a decrease in immunity. Long pains that most often appear in the evening and do not subside until the morning are all signs of neuralgia. With a deep exhale or inhalation, the pain intensifies. If you still have pain in the heart, then they are short-lived, in contrast to the symptoms of neuralgia. With pathology in the heart, there is no pain when inhaling. Measure the pressure, if the pain is associated with cardiovascular disease, then the pulse is disturbed, and the pressure becomes higher. Neuralgia is characterized by pain-attacks, which can last about 20 minutes, congenital pathologies can affect discomfort. This disease can occur due to cervical osteochondrosis. Also, an uncomfortable posture can trigger discomfort.
Pain in the heart does not last so long, it sometimes happens due to physical and psychological stress. In this situation, the pain is pressing, in contrast to neuralgia (stitching). With attacks of neuralgia, it is better to take sedative or cardiological drugs. Everyone can have pathologies of the heart, age does not matter, unlike neuralgia, since most often elderly people suffer from this disease.
In any case, if a person does not feel well, then it is worth immediately contacting a specialist. After all, any attack is already a certain call to check your health.
Treatment
Despite far-reaching medicine, the emergence of new diagnostic methods, methods and methods for the complete cure of heart diseases has not been invented. True, with a timely diagnosis and timely treatment of heart diseases, you can improve the condition significantly, slow down the development of diseases, increase life expectancy and improve its quality.
Risk factor
The key to successfully treating heart pain is eliminating risk factors. That is, in order for the treatment to be successful, it is necessary to fulfill several basic rules:
- Change your lifestyle.
- Reduce blood pressure.
- Establish a healthy sleep.
- Eat properly.
- Normalize blood sugar.
- Bring cholesterol back to normal.
- Quit smoking.
- Establish physical activity.
By following all these rules and adding medication for heart pain, you can count on a positive outcome for heart pain treatment in 80% of cases. In addition, a patient who has fulfilled all the rules can get rid of heart pain without taking medication or reduce their use. The less often you have to call an ambulance, the less often you have to undergo treatment in a stationary department of cardiology, the better for a patient, the more chances to live a full life and enjoy every day you live.
Deterioration involves mandatory hospitalization and treatment of heart pain. Properly selected therapy minimizes complications and fatalities.
The first signs of the need for hospitalization include:
- First appeared chest pain.
- Appeared attack of arrhythmia.
- A sharp deterioration.
- Growing angina pectoris.
- Edema, shortness of breath, change in ECG.
- A condition close to myocardial infarction.
In other cases of manifestation of heart pain, treatment can be carried out at home. The main thing is to know how to determine heart pain, to distinguish it from another pain. Taking pills gives only a relief of an attack to continue to do everyday work. The medication schedule is a doctor. Self-medication will only aggravate the situation. After all, pain in the region of the heart does not always indicate problems with it. Symptoms can be caused by other diseases and pathologies. It can be problems with the spine, diseases of the back and stomach. In these cases, the standard treatment regimen and list of drugs for heart pain are completely useless. It is necessary to establish the root cause of the pathology. You may need to consult other specialists.
Therapy
In order for the treatment to have a positive result, it is necessary to establish all the causes of the appearance of heart pain. Remember that miracle pills do not exist. An individual drug selection scheme is needed, which cannot be compiled without a comprehensive examination and the results of the analyzes obtained. In order not to drink handfuls of pills, modern pharmaceuticals offers a lot of products that combine several properties as much as possible. But this is not enough.
The doctor prescribes medications for heart pain in several exposure groups:
- Reflex.
- Peripheral.
- Antiplatelet agents.
- Blockers.
- Beta blockers.
- Fibrates and statins.
- Trace elements.
Reflex drugs include medicines for heart pain, the action of which is aimed at relieving severe discomfort. They are usually taken for heart pain caused by vascular dystonia.
The peripheral group of drugs is designed to affect the muscle tissue of blood vessels. They are prescribed for severe pain, when urgent care is required for pain, when there is a risk of myocardial infarction. Peripheral drugs should be taken with angina pectoris, with chest pain, for the treatment of cardiac ischemia, with heart failure. They are taken during the treatment of pain in the heart and as a preventive measure.
Medicines from the group of antiplatelet agents are designed to prevent and prevent the development of blood clots. Blocking drugs eliminate the penetration of calcium into the cells of the heart. They are designed to normalize blood pressure and heart rate. Blocking drugs are prescribed for the treatment of heart pain caused by hypertension, tachycardia, cardiac ischemia.
Fibrates, statins are aimed at lowering cholesterol levels in the blood. They are taken as an additional tool in the treatment of heart pain caused by an increase in cholesterol.
Medicines
There is a huge list of medicines for heart pain. It is very difficult to figure it out on your own. Better if a specialist does it. There are always cases when help to yourself or another person needs to be provided urgently. Therefore, it is necessary first of all to know the names of the drugs, to understand their action, in order to ease the attack before medical care is provided by specialists. The main thing is to know how to relieve heart pain quickly.
Ambulance drugs for heart pain include:
- Validol
- "Nitroglycerine".
- "Aspirin".
- Amlodipine.
- Ascorutin and others.
If often something hurts on the left side, then the presence of such funds in a home medicine cabinet should be mandatory.
For pain in the heart, the following drugs are prescribed:
- Glycosides: Digoxin and Korglikon. Their action is aimed at eliminating tachycardia.
- Inhibitors: Ramipril, Quinapril and Thrandolapril. Contribute to the restoration of blood vessels, aimed at the expansion of arteries.
- Diuretics: Furasemide and Britomir, which help reduce swelling and heart stress.
- Reconditioners. These include drugs "Isoket", "Minoxidil", "Nitroglycerin". Their main task is to normalize vascular tone.
- Beta blockers. These are the drugs "Carvedipol", "Metopropol", "Celipropol". They are taken to eliminate arrhythmia and enrich the vessels with oxygen.
- Anticoagulants: Warfarin, Arikstra, Sinkumar, to prevent and eliminate blood clots.
- Statins: Lipostat, Anvistat, Zokor. They are taken to lower cholesterol and prevent plaque formation.
- Antithrombotic drugs: Cardiomagnyl, Aspirin Cardio, Curantil - act in the same way as anticoagulants.
If medications for heart pain do not give a positive effect, cardiologists recommend resorting to surgical intervention. But it is carried out only after heart pain has been recognized.