Heart and Throat tightness

[soccrbreeze2818]

I am a 21 year old female. I had pneumonia over Christmas and ever since then I have been experiencing a "ticking clock" type of sound after I exercise. I notice it at the end of my exercise when I lean forward and bend over to stretch. It sounds like a rapid ticking noise coming from my chest area. My dad has mitral valve prolapse but he has never heard of the ticking sound sensation. I also have experienced pressure in my lower throat area. Sometimes it feels tight and is hard to swallow. I am not sure if the two are related? Maybe the sound is from my throat? Or both are a result of my heart?

[achillea]

I have mild asthma, and there are times when, if I bend over in the way you describe, I can hear a faint, rapid ticking noise in my chest.  However, it is not in time with my heartbeat, and it mostly occurs towards the end of a long exhalation.  In my case, it seems to be specifically related to airway irritation.  I wonder if you are experiencing something related to your bout of pneumonia.

As the doc says, see someone and get it checked out just to be on the safe side.

[CCFHeartMD 12]

Have you tried timing the "rapid ticking noise" to your heart rate/pulse after exercise?  If it matches the heart rate then it's unlikely to come from your throat.  I am not sure how the pneumonia episode several months ago could have caused this -- the only thing that comes to mind so far is an arrhythmia which occurs with exercises, triggered by recent infection.  An exercise stress echocardiogram could rule this out (there is EKG monitoring during the entire test).  The echo portion would rule out valvular heart disease.