Hi I'm a 44 year old female going through quite a journey with chest pain over last 6 weeks. Thought it was indigestion due to brufen used for painful knee after swimming for 2 weeks then got SOB and severe pain at work (paediatric nurse). ECG showed slight ST depression, dobutamine stress echo showed 3 segment ischaemia at apex and angio showed normal coronary arteries but small vessel disease. Finding getting chest pain under control tough just started bisprolol with some improvement until I do something and started imdur today 30mg slow release, had 2 admissions to hospital due to pain finding support tough - pain not severe but lasts a long time when it arrives GTN spray works sometimes. Already on oramorph for primary biliary cirrhosis which doesn't take all the pain away. Now on 14 different tablets (diabetic, PCOS, hypertensive, high cholesterol and hiatus hernia). Wonder will I ever get back to work. Have been reading your forum and finding it so helpful, looking forward to future posts.
It is called angina and it may not be from your larger coronary arteries which you had by-passed in 2008.You may even pass chemical stress tests.This exertional type of angina may be from the smaller or microvessels in the heart.These vessels are connected to the larger coronary vessels and are interwined throughout the heart muscle, carrying 70% of the heart blood load.So you can have decent open larger coronaries but still have angina on exertion from the small vessels which can also be diseased and not open.Nitro may or may not help. If you have nitro, be sure it's fresh, not expired. Blood pressure rises and shortness of breath can be present.Other meds, calcium channel blocker or beta blocker may help as long acting nitrates like Imdur or Ranexa.Talk to your doctors about 'microvascular dysfunction or disease'.They may add or change your meds.Unfortunately, there is no surgical intervention for this. So watch your exertion. Joan.