What Causes Tightness In Chest And Painful Shoulder Blade When I Stand?

Posted on Mon, 3 Nov 2014

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

Mon, 3 Nov 2014 Answered on

Wed, 26 Nov 2014 Last reviewed on

Question : I'm a 45 year old woman. For the past 24 hours I have been experiencing when I stand or sit I have mild tightness in my chest and pain in the middle of my back in the left shoulder blade area. When I lay down flat on my back the pain is just about completely gone.
Don't know of it's stress, pulled muscle, angina or what it is. I don't have a history of heart disease. I am on blood thinners for 12 years for blood clots due to Mae Thurners.

Answered by Dr. Benard Shehu (2 hours later)

Brief Answer:
It's not typical for cardiac problems...

Detailed Answer:
Hi and thank you for asking to HCM!

Your pain characteristics isn't typical for heart disease. However I recommend doing an ecg, cardiac echo and stress test, in order to definitely exclude cardiac problems.

I think that the pain may be related to gastrointestinal disorders or musculoskeletal disorders.

If you were my patient I would suggest doing the following examinations:
- Chest x ray
- Abdominal ultrasound
- Blood work
- Upper endoscopy

if everything will be normal than nothing to worry about, it's a musculoskeletal disorder.

Hope this was of help!
Dr. Benard

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Bhagyalaxmi Nalaparaju