What Causes Stabbing Pain In The Chest Area?

Posted on Tue, 13 Jan 2015

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

Tue, 13 Jan 2015 Answered on

Tue, 10 Feb 2015 Last reviewed on

Question : Hi. Went to er this morning due to strange feeling in chest. Had an ekg done, it was great, blood work, all levels great, chest xray all was good, and had my heartrate and bp measured for 3 hours and it was perfect. I do have random epidodes of stabbing pain that feels like its right through my heart snd stabs out my back. Not a crushing. More like im being stabbed Only lasts 5-10 seconds and has happened 3 or 4 times today. Also experienced this a few days a couple of weeks ago. I do have pacs at times pretty frequently. I havent noticed many today but yeaterday my heartbeat felt strong and forceful all day and my at home bp monitor kept displaying the irregular heartbeat symbol. My concern is that the chest pain is tryin ti warn me of something bad to come like cardiac arrest. Can it indicate something like that even if my labs and all looked good this morning at the ER?

Answered by Dr. Benard Shehu (-2 hours later)

Brief Answer:
You shouldn't worry, nothing will happen to you...

Detailed Answer:
Hi XXXX!

I read your query and understood your concerns. As long as ecg, heart monitor and other examinations are ok you shouldn't worry nothing life threatening will happen to you.

However I recommend doing the following examinations to find out the exact cause of your concerns:
- stress test
- cardiac echo
- holter monitoring

Wish you health!
Dr.Benard

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