What Causes Burning Sensation In The Chest?

Posted on Tue, 31 Jan 2017

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

Tue, 31 Jan 2017 Answered on

Wed, 22 Feb 2017 Last reviewed on

Question : The last few nights as I went to bed I experienced a burning, stinging type pain in my chest, behind my sternum. It felt better when I sat up. I have never experienced this before. The pain also was felt in my upper abdomen. I was going to wake someone up to take me to the hospital but it did go away. I am a normal weight 58 year old female who is very active, (running, walking every day) and am not high risk for heart disease. I do have mitral valve prolapse and PAC's which I take 20 mg of Toprol for each night. My BP is normal. I was going to call my primary doctor just to let him know about my symptoms. How worried should I be? If it were a onset of a heart attack would I be fine now and able to go for a run?Â

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

Brief Answer:
Not the onset of a heart attack

Detailed Answer:
Greetings and welcome to HCM. Thank you for your question. I understand your concern.

Heart attack symptoms in most of cases are preceded by a hard, intensive, tightness in the mid-chest, rather than pinned, localized type of pain. The latter is a characteristic of costochondritis or sudden pressure changes inside the chest area, which are reflected by the symptoms you have described. My opinion is that this is not an onset of a heart attack. Therefore, I would say that you should not worry about this matter.

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

Kind regards,
Dr. Meriton

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Yogesh D