Having Severe Chest Pain From Back To Jaw. Test Result Showed Uncoordinated Esophagus. Help?

Posted on Fri, 11 Oct 2013

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Fri, 11 Oct 2013 Answered on

Thu, 7 Nov 2013 Last reviewed on

Question : Approx. 6 wk ago I awoke in the middle of the night with severe chest pain radiating to arms back and jaw. 60yo wf 185lb . Had cardiac XXXXXXX which was normal. Have long family history of CVD and MI. Cardiac XXXXXXX was normal. I continue to have these episodes at night or immediately after awakening. Had Barium swallow which showed "uncoordinated esophagus." Nitroglycerine SL helps. Why do these spasms happen only at night?

Answered by Dr. Srikanth Reddy (2 hours later)

Brief Answer:
Esophageal Spasm

Detailed Answer:
Hello,
Thanks for choosing health care magic for posting your query.
I have gone through your question in detail and I can understand what you are going through.
The pain that you are describing is typically of esophageal spasm. Basically it is disease of nerves supplying the esophagus which cause spasm cause of uncoordinated contractions.
At night the gastro-esophageal sphincter gets loose and this causes the acid in the stomach to get into the esophagus which induces contraction of esophagus muscles. Rising to this pain.
You have stated that you are already on nitroglycerine which reduces such spasms. Along with the you have to take an early dinner which has to be light accompanied with some post-dinner walk. Nifedipine, a calcium channel blocker, is implicated in such conditions.
Hope I am able to answer your concerns.
If you have any further query, I would be glad to help you.
If not, you may close the discussion and if possible you may rate the answer for me, so that I get a good feedback.
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Wish you good health,
Kind regards
Dr. Srikanth Reddy M.D.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar