The pain in heart attack - location, irradiation and common signs
Once a heart attack installs, the pain is inevitable and it strikes suddenly as a burning sensation in the chest. The pain is different from one to other individual, but there are a few principal symptoms that are met more often in heart attacks. People ho experienced a heart attack may have some difficulties to describe the sensations they had, but generally, they describe it as a major discomfort, one or more of the following sensations:
- Crushing, compressing pain, heaviness of the chest - it is a sensations of a very heavy weight on the chest, pressing the thorax.
- Viselike tightness, constricting or squeezing - the sensation is compared to clenching a fist
- Chocking and strangling across the chest - this sensation may be similar to that of angina pains, and there are voices that say that this is more a psychological induced pain and not one caused directly by the heart attack event.
- Burning-like indigestion - the burning sensation may come from the heart projection, but it can come from the stomach's are too. In this case, the pain is not accompanied by sweating, as the heart burning sensation is.
- Fullness sensation - like there's a need to free your stomach or esophagus. It is a sensation that may be caused by the gastroesophageal reflux or esophagitis.
- A general discomfort - this discomfort may be or not accompanied by other symptoms. In most of cases, there might be numbness of the right or left hand, chest tightness, but rarely these are the only symptoms of a heart attack. The classical heart attack is accompanied by a sharp, stabling, sticking, knifelike pain in the chest. These pains are often caused by chest wall and gases
- Dizziness and weakness
- Nausea without vomiting or diarrhea.
- An aching pain under the breastbone or the arm.
The burning heart pain in heart attack is located under the breastbone. A pain in the nipple area (under it or outside it) is not a sign of a heart attack. Another common area for the heart attack pains is the upper part of the breastbone and the pit of the stomach. The pain may radiate upper and don, it may extend to the entire chest area and irradiate in the left or right arms (numbness). Arm, jaw or throat pain will allays be accompanied by chest pain in a heart attack.
The pain duration in a heart attack is described as being "severe pain" in 50% of cases. 10% of the patients say the pain is "unbearable and very severe". 10% of patients may even not notice they suffered a heart attack - usually these are diabetics. In this case heart attacks are found at a routine ECG or at autopsy if they don't survive to it. In heart attacks, the pain usually lasts for more than 30 minutes - to 1 hour and even 4 hours. On the other hand, the angina pain lasts between 1 to 5 minutes, in some cases up to 15 minutes, so the time of pain duration is a differential criteria between angina chest pain and the heart attack pain.
Bibliography "Encyclopedia of Heart Disease" by M. I. Gabriel Khan, page 401-403
You might be interested in:
- Pain in heart angina
- False heart attack - disease that may mimic a myocardial infarction
- Signs of a Heart Attack
- Nature of the pain in Heart Attack
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