Most people are rushed to the emergency unit in the hospital because of chest pain. Most individual thinks they are having a heart attack but in reality they are not. It is actually a non-cardiac chest pain which closely resembles heart pain. The squeezing pain is actually felt just behind the breast bone and may spread to the back, left arm and the neck. This might be hastened by food intake and it may last for quite some time. Patients might also experience symptoms like heartburn or fluid regurgitation.
Since the pain is the same as heart pain, most patients as well as physicians always refer it to pain in the heart. That is probably the reason why most patients are rushed to the emergency rooms and undergo cardiac testing like EKGs, coronary angiography, stress test and laboratory test. If the result shows no evidence of cardiac disease then the patient is diagnose to have NCCP or Non-Cardiac Chest Pain which will lead your healthcare provider to investigate other causes of chest pain. Noncardiac chest pain is quite common condition in the United States and in fact it affects about twenty-three percent of its population (World J Gastroenterol 2004).
Such chest pain may also be referred with other names like functional chest pain, irritable heart, neurocirculatory asthenia and DaCosta’s syndrome. You might encounter these names and you might wonder what it is. This pains in chest and back means the same as non-cardiac chest pain.
This disorder which brings pain in chest and back as its major symptom is quite common not just to a specific race but of international proportions. With the population studies conducted it showed that 23% of the population of the United States that is about 69 million suffers from NCCP or chest pain and back pain. Other countries showed 33% in Australia, 24% in Argentina and 21% in South China.
Causes of Non-Cardiac Chest Pain (NCCP)
Causes of NCCP can be categorized into two that is the esophageal and non-esophageal. Few studies showed already that about sixty percent of patients with NCCP suffer from esophageal pain due to acid reflux.
That is why patients who experienced chest pain but is evaluated to have no cardiac problem is frequently referred to gastroenterologists so as to check on the esophagus as a primary source of chest pain.
The most common esophageal NCCP is acid reflux where one experience symptoms like chest pain, heartburn and regurgitation. Other causes may include disorders of esophagus muscle and visceral hypersensitivity.
Non-esophageal cause includes musculo-skeletal conditions of the spine or chest wall, gall bladder, digestive disorders like ulcers, pericardial conditions, pleural illness, pulmonary disorders, pancreatic diseases and in rare cases tumors.
Treatment for such condition varies depending on the cause of your chest pain. It is just important that first and foremost you will be evaluated thoroughly for any cardiac problems and if the results showed you do not have then your healthcare provider can move on to identifying the cause of your chest pain by considering the esophageal and non-esophageal cause of non-cardiac chest pain. When the cause is identified then proper treatment will be initiated regarding back and chest pain (Sami R. Achem, MD, Mayo College of Medicine).