What Causes Severe Heart Palpitations With Chest Discomfort?

Posted on Thu, 10 Nov 2016

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

Thu, 10 Nov 2016 Answered on

Sat, 26 Nov 2016 Last reviewed on

Question : I am experiencing rapid heart beat that woke me from a sleep. Also some chest discomfort. I have had some pain and pressure in my chest over the last week but not right now. I am not in my home state and therefore am somewhat unsure what to do. I took my usual medicine plus two regular aspirin.

Answered by Dr. Ilir Sharka (8 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
I would recommend as follows:

Detailed Answer:
Hello!

Welcome and thank you for asking on HCM!

Regarding your concern, it is necessary to perform a comprehensive differential diagnosis between different causes that may lead to your symptoms (cardiac arrhythmia, myocardial ischemia, a lung disease, musculo-skeletal pain or just anxiety).

For this reason, I would recommend going to the ER for a physical exam and some tests:

- resting ECG and cardiac enzymes
- a chest X ray study
- blood electrolytes
- complete blood count and inflammation tests for infection.

Hope you will find this answer helpful!

Kind regards,

Dr. Iliri

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