Do I have angina

[jdub2683]

26 year old male here.  Non smoker.  Normal weight (145lbs).  Consider myself to be healthy.  Used to run a lot, half marathons, 10k's.  Recently, for about a week I have been experiencing tightness just below my left shoulder, down the left inside part of left arm, and in my neck.  I have also felt fatigued and the pain seems to get worse with exertion, although not everytime.  I've had several ekgs done and all were negative, but the tightness contiuned so i had an exercise stress EKG test with ECHO imaging and everything came back normal.  My BP was high but I believe thats because I was REALLY nervous during the testing.  Still after all this I still seem to feel this tightness.  I would not describe this as pain but as just discomfort.  What gives?  Do I have angina?  If not, then what?  Should i go in for further testing?

[ed34]

Well, with angina you would easily be able to diagnose it yourself so a large extent.
Sit comfortably and relax until there is no discomfort. Start exertion, anything which would normally bring on the discomfort. Then sit back down and relax and the discomfort should vanish within a few seconds. If the pains are still there after a couple of minutes then this is unlikely to be angina. This is because the heart will relax quickly when you sit down and the extra demand will diminish fast. Muscular pain will continue for longer.

[jdub2683]

yes did chest xray and they saw nothing.  chest and arm seem to get tight randomly not so much with exertion like before.  still the tightness in my chest and left arm just won't go away.  I have been under an enormous amount of stress (moved in to a new place, finals, etc, etc.) could that be it?  it feels muscular more than anything but damn its in a terrible place cuz its got me all worried.  what do you think?

[cath911]

Did they do a chest xray? Did they do blood tests to see if you are lacking iron or anything? Did they eliminate muscular issues?
When people get a pain in the chest, shoulder or back, they rightly get checked out for heart problems. However, the fear of having a heart problem seems impossible to shift, even when a cardiologist says everything is fine. I have no idea why this syndrome occurs but pains can be caused by so many other things. Does this pain occur when you go for a simple brisk walk?

[kenkeith]

What does your doctor conclude after testing procedures?  You should get a copy of your test results.  Have non heart issues been excluded.  Need more information.