Suggest Treatment For Severe Chest Pain While Diagnosed With COPD

Posted on Tue, 17 May 2016

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

Tue, 17 May 2016 Answered on

Fri, 24 Jun 2016 Last reviewed on

Question : I have severe pain in the upper right chest moving into the back by the shoulder blade. Weakness in right arm an achy feeling. I have been diagnosed with COPD in the last year and CAD. Have had angioplasty and stent of the left circumflex artery due to blockage. On O2 @ 4 lpm all the time and have shortness of breath all the time so cannot consider that as a symptom.

Answered by Dr. Dr. Meriton Siqeca (1 hour later)

Brief Answer:
A visit to the emergency room is advised

Detailed Answer:
Greetings and welcome to HCM. I understand your concern.

I also think that your shortness of breath is due to your chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. This atypical kind of chest pain is not very conclusive as a chest pain coming from the heart arteries. However, I would advise any patient that has stent implanted in one or more coronary arteries that, in such cases, should go to the emergency room, so at least an EKG should be performed to see if there is clue of any problems with the coronary arteries and with the stent placed there. This is just to be in the clear. Once the coronary arteries are ruled out as the origin of the pain, then the pain may be treated symptomatically and we may think that the culprit is any chronic or acute inflammation of the bones or muscles of the area.

I hope I was helpful. I am happy to help, if you have follow-up questions.

Kind regards,
Dr. Meriton

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Raju A.T