Chest Pain

Chest pain or discomfort is often due to conditions that are not related to heart problems (for example, chest infections, injury, or inflammation). However, the chest pain or discomfort associated with heart disease, particularly angina or myocardial infarction (heart attack), has several typical characteristics, which should prompt you to get medical attention.

The 'typical' chest pains you should get urgent medical attention for include the following:

• The sensation of 'gripping' or a 'tight band' around the central chest ('like being squeezed by a snake')
• Pain or tightness also felt in an arm (or arms) and neck, and sometimes in the back
• Feeling breathless
• Feeling frightened
• Being cold and sweaty
• Feeling sick and sometimes feeling dizzy or light-headed
• Pain coming on gradually rather than suddenly (that is, it comes on over seconds and minutes rather than in a split second)
• Pain that comes on when you are at rest rather than active.