Is it dangerous to feel a lump in the chest? Let's figure it out in this article.
Chest pain is one of the most common pathologies. Unpleasant sensations in the chest can occur with various diseases, so patients with such ailments usually undergo additional examinations, and for this purpose you need to consult a specialist. The thorax is the upper region of the body, which looks like a truncated cone. The thoracic cage consists of the sternum, ribs, and vertebral column. It protects the organs necessary for life (heart and lungs), participates in respiratory processes, connects with the skeleton.
At a specialist's appointment, patients often complain about the feeling of a coma in the chest. This raises serious concerns, since the symptom may indicate a serious illness that requires medical attention.intervention. However, it is not so easy to say about the cause of the unpleasant feeling - you must first examine in detail.
Which doctor should I contact?
When a feeling of a coma in the chest, severity of unclear origin, you can first take a ticket to the therapist. He, in turn, will study the symptoms and refer the patient to a narrower specialist: a cardiologist, pulmonologist, etc.
What a chest x-ray shows, see below.
Mechanisms and causes
Heaviness is not normal. Sometimes it's hard to take a deep breath. This is not quite pain yet, but it can turn into it in the future, when the pathological process develops. It is important to find out in time the cause of the problem in the body. Only a specialist can do this, since diseases of various systems and organs can become a source of such symptoms:
- Pleura and lungs (pneumo- and hemothorax, pleurisy, emphysema, tuberculosis, pneumonia).
- Bronchi (obstructive disease, bronchial asthma).
- Hearts (valvular disease, pericarditis, ischemic disease). People often ask how to understand what hurts the heart. Let's figure it out.
- Esophagus and stomach (diaphragmatic hernia, achalasia cardia, reflux esophagitis).
- Mediastinum (tumors, enlarged lymph nodes).
- Spine and chest (intervertebral hernia, osteochondrosis, trauma).
- Neuro-psychological condition (depression and neurosis).
Chest lump, heaviness and painare quite common and cannot be ignored. Given the multiple nature of the genesis of such a symptom, it is impossible to do without scrupulous differential diagnosis during the examination. If some conditions are excluded, then others will be confirmed, and the doctor will gradually determine the source of pathological sensations in a particular case.
The problem of the origin of a feeling of heaviness in the chest is not so simple, this condition has many causes. However, an experienced specialist will be able to understand this situation.
Symptoms
The source of the coma in the sternum in the middle is always hidden behind its symptoms. That is why, first of all, the analysis of the clinical picture is important in the diagnostic process. First, the doctor will listen to the patient's complaints, find out the features of the course of the pathology before contacting a medical institution. After that, subjective information will be supported by the results of an objective study: physical methods (auscultation, percussion, palpation) and examination.
So why does my chest hurt?
Pathology of the pleura and lungs
With a sudden onset of heaviness in the chest, one cannot help but think that there is a pulmonary-pleural disease. Most often we are talking about the inflammatory process - exudative pleurisy or pneumonia. In such a situation, attention is drawn to the general and local symptoms:
- wet or dry cough;
- mixed dyspnoea;
- chest pain during breathing (left or right side);
- difficulty taking deep breaths;
- malaise;
- fever.
Unlike the listed conditions, the development of tuberculosis is gradual. For a long time, the disease is manifested by subfebrile condition, weakness, loss of appetite. Cough does not always draw the attention of patients, especially in smokers. However, over time, symptoms of respiratory insufficiency join him, blood spitting appears.
In patients with pneumothorax, the condition worsens rather quickly. Air entering the pleural cavity compresses the lung. It becomes difficult for a person to breathe, there are sharp pains that are given behind the sternum and in the neck. The neck veins swell, the heart rate increases, the skin turns pale, and a feeling of anxiety appears.
Many conditions during the examination accompany the lagging of the affected part of the chest during breathing. Auscultation is determined by the weakening of breathing, crepitus or wet rales, pleural friction noise.
What else can a lump in the sternum in the middle mean?
Pathologies of the bronchi often lead to a feeling of coma
Heavy, lumpy chest and breathing difficulties are not uncommon in bronchial tree disease. The process in the vast majority of cases is inflammatory and infectious in nature with the addition of allergic symptoms. Obstructive disease and asthma have much in common:
- dyspnea with longer expiration;
- chronic;
- cough with scanty sputum;
- with auscultation - dry rales;
- chest expansion.
Bronchial asthma is aggravated due to the influence of allergens on the body and proceeds in the form of an asthma attack - the patient is forced to take a certain position, his breathing becomes frequent and superficial, his pulse quickens, cold sweat appears.
When the attack ends, viscous and transparent glassy sputum leaves with the cough.
With obstructive disease, shortness of breath gradually and at the same time steadily progresses, which develops in patients working in dusty air, as well as in experienced smokers. An exacerbation is caused by an infection, shortness of breath and cough increase, the amount of sputum increases, and its purulence increases. Due to bronchial obstruction, pulmonary emphysema always occurs.
Respiratory pathology also occupies a significant place among the most likely causes of a feeling of heaviness in the chest, it is associated with inflammation of the bronchi, pleura or lungs.
How to understand what hurts the heart?
Heart disease
The most dangerous for patients are cardiac pathologies. Heaviness behind the sternum and pressing pains are a typical sign of coronary heart disease.
An unpleasant feeling radiates under the shoulder blade or in the left arm, it is caused by emotional stress or physical exertion.
An attack of angina pectoris does not last long (about ten minutes), it is eliminated with nitroglycerin. With myocardial infarction, the picture is opposite. However, in addition to pain in the heart muscle, there will be other symptoms of ischemic changes:
- fear of death,alarm;
- shortness of breath at rest and on exertion;
- rapid heart rate;
- sweating and pale;
- muffled heart sounds.
If there is a suspicion of pleurisy, the pain will be located to the left of the sternum - in the area near the heart. They are aggravated by movement, coughing, breathing, however, they are weakened when the patient lies down. A pericardial friction rub is heard on auscultation, becoming more pronounced with pressure on the chest with a stethoscope.
Many valvular defects are accompanied by symptoms of heart failure: skin cyanosis, pallor, shortness of breath, decreased exercise tolerance. Heart murmurs are heard.
The causes of a coma in the chest should be determined by a doctor.
Pathologies of the gastrointestinal tract
Heaviness and pain behind the sternum are also possible with pathologies of the digestive tract. Their specific feature is the occurrence mainly after eating (on their own, in the supine position, with bending over, against the background of physical activity) and are accompanied by other symptoms:
- pain and discomfort in the epigastrium;
- vomit;
- heartburn;
- regurgitation and belching;
- dysphagia (impaired swallowing).
When gastroesophageal reflux occurs, the back reflux of stomach contents into the esophagus, which accompanies heartburn. The reverse situation is achalasia of the cardia, when incomplete relaxation or closure of the sphincter occurs when food is received. Diaphragmatic hernia differs in hitgastric cardia into the dilated ring of the esophagus. All of these conditions may be accompanied by a feeling of heaviness and pain, combined with dyspeptic disorders.
A number of digestive pathologies, in particular diseases of the stomach and esophagus, often give a feeling of coma and chest pain that occurs after eating.
Sometimes there is a lump in the chest and it is difficult to breathe.
Mediastinal disease
Due to the volumetric processes occurring in the mediastinum, the direct effect is on the organs that are located in this anatomical region: the pericardium, esophagus, blood vessels, bronchi. Therefore, pain and heaviness in the chest constantly accompany such patients. The symptoms of bronchial compression (paroxysmal cough, stridor breathing, shortness of breath), dysphonia (esophagus), sympathetic nerve trunk (retraction of the eye, pupillary constriction, omission of the eyelid) and superior vena cava predominate in the clinical picture. The latter include the following symptoms:
- blueness and swelling of the face;
- headaches;
- swollen neck veins;
- noise in my head.
Malignant tumors spread to adjacent tissues, causing angina pectoris, fever, pleurisy and pericarditis. Patients report a deterioration in appetite, general malaise, weight loss. The oncological process gives metastases to the lymph nodes and other organs, and therefore patients feel even worse.
Pathologies of the skeletal system
Due to damage to the bone skeleton, whichrepresent the spine and chest, and bruising of the sternum can also cause a feeling of heaviness. Fractures and bruises cause breathing difficulties, feeling the inflamed places is painful, bruising, bruising and swelling on the skin are noticeable. Many diseases of the spinal column (hernia, osteochondrosis) are accompanied by compression of the nerve roots that extend from the spinal cord, which leads to pain in the lower back and chest (right or left), impaired movements, decreased sensitivity in some areas and numbness. On palpation, tense back muscles, painful paravertebral points. Often, pressing pain in the chest can be a symptom of a neuropsychiatric pathology.
Neuropsychiatric diseases as a common cause of discomfort in the chest
Studying the causes of the condition in which patients have difficulty breathing, one cannot help but recall the diseases of the neuropsychic type, since such sensations in some cases do not depend on the physical state, but are caused by functional disorders or are determined by consciousness. In such cases, the symptoms are quite diverse:
- irritability and anxiety;
- emotional lability;
- headaches;
- "Lump" in the throat;
- dizziness;
- unsatisfactory breath;
- palpitations etc.
Patients with depression and neurotic reactions often have to go to different doctors, but they do not find any morphological changes during the examination, and therefore cannot establish a diagnosis for a long timedue to other conditions.
If pain, heaviness and a lump in the chest do not fit into the symptoms of organic pathology, a neuropsychic genesis of sensations is possible.
Additional diagnosis of this pathology
It is possible to determine the origin of unpleasant sensations only on the basis of the results of a comprehensive examination. Given the many causes of the phenomena being studied, various diagnostic procedures may be needed:
- general urine and blood tests;
- blood biochemistry (immunoglobulins, coagulogram, lipid spectrum, inflammatory markers);
- pleural fluid and sputum analysis (culture, cytology);
- chest x-ray;
- spirometry;
- tomography;
- ultrasound of the heart;
- electrocardiography;
- fibrogastroscopy, etc.
Let's take a closer look at what a chest x-ray shows.
X-ray is designed primarily to determine the nature of lung disease - pneumonia, occupational injuries, tuberculosis, benign and malignant tumors. Also, this method is effective in diagnosing changes in the lymph nodes and spine. Radiography helps to identify heart disease, disease of the pericardium and heart muscle.
These methods will indicate the source of violations and help the specialist draw final conclusions about the patient's condition. Often this requires the participation of related specialists: a phthisiatrician and a pulmonologist, a gastroenterologist and a cardiologist,vertebrologist and neurologist, psychotherapist and oncologist. Only after determining the source of the symptoms, it will be possible to prescribe the appropriate therapy.
