Pain in the chest....

Good morning everyone, This is the first time I have posted anything in this forum (I think?), I am usually in the MS site I was diagnosed with MS is 2001.  Everyone here seems knowledgeable with their own experiances so I wanted to ask if anyone can relate to what I feel.  I am 32 yrs old and this past august passed out in the middle of my living room and was out for approx. 30 minutes.  Went to the ER and found that my blood pressure was low and my heartrate was in the 30's.  After a week in the hospital my heartrate and blood pressure still would not come up so I ended up with a pacemaker duel lead.  This has helped the heartrate but not the blood pressure and unfortunly I have passed out several times since getting the pacemaker and ended up pulling the leads out 2 weeks after placement without knowing it so this had to be fixed which was like torcher as they had already scared in place.  I have constant chest pain, pressure like someone is sitting on me, and none of my doctors know what to do.  My neurologist keeps wanting to send me to a MS speciaist which there is no point as I can not get any more MRI's with this pacemaker.  My cardiologist who is great, says there just is nothing he can do for the chest pain. I feel like an eighty year old in a thirty year old body.....

Hi Patoolla, thank you for your reply!  No, I haven't had an angiogram done but I did have a chemical stress test and it came back clean. I did have a bubble study done? sound familiar I don't know the technical name of it and it showed a hole in between the ventrals (VHE?) anyway, my physicians found an Autonomic Disorder called Multiple System Atrophy which is why I would of had to have the pacemaker and why I have the low blood pressure and they think it might be causing the chest pain.  I really dont know,  I just wondered if anyone else had unexplained chest pain or pressure.  It is kind of like I am being sat on all the time.  I am going to go for a second opinion anyhow.  Thank you. ~elisha

elisha, Just read this and hope you'll update this thread as things go along.

Will be thinking much of you and praying.

Ann

---

 

Oh good Elisha, glad your getting the 2nd opinion!  Keep us posted ok?  Hugs, Pat

---

Unfortunately I can't help with the medical condition and I hope your health is improving. I am looking to talk to a pacemaker recepient under 65 who used private insurance to cover the procedure. I am conducting an investigation into some insurance/medical device manufacturing issues.

Larry

Hi Elisha,

Like many people with chest pain, you may fear a heart attack. However, there are many possible causes of chest pain. Some causes are mildly inconvenient, while other causes are serious, even life-threatening. Any organ or tissue in your chest can be the source of pain, including your heart, lungs, esophagus, muscles, ribs, tendons, or nerves. Im with Patoola here though, maybe try another cardio doc....Someone that will get to the bottom of
this. Or through it up to your family physician and see what he/she says.

Hope your better soon!

Bill H

Elisha,

I would go see the MS specialist--there is recent data that suggests that people CAN go into a MRI with a pacemaker.

http://www.imrser.org/PDF/JACC.PACEMAKERS.MRI.pdf
http://uuhsc.utah.edu/rad/mriandPacemakers.html

I am also unsettled by a cardiologist just dismissing chest pain. With the bubble study, did it show a hole in the atria septum (ASD/PFO)or the ventricular septum (VSD) ? More common is an ASD/PFO, and one of the consequences of having this is that there can occasionally be a "paradoxical embolus" -- a clot in the leg travels to the left side of the body and causes a stroke or heart attack. http://www.emedicine.com/med/topic653.htm There are ways to treat this--so I am concerned with your physician being a bit cavalier with your chest pain. Chemical stress tests are not 100% accurate.

Finally, especially with someone who is having hypotension significant enough to cause blackouts--that needs to be further investigated/treated--there may be a medication that may be helpful to you.

So I truly recommend you see your physicians again, and see the MS specialist. Good luck to you.

Hi Doctor James, 

The bubble study showed a Ventricular Septum.  I don't know where I came up with VHE?  I do see a MS specialist in March in St. Louis.  Hopefully she can help further and allow an MRI of my spine to check for leisons.  My mom is a nurse and has said that they could do a MRI with pacers.  However, my Cardiologist was very adamant about not allowing it due to how low my heart rate was before and that the pacemaker paces at 100% of the time.  I have been diagnosed with MSA by a Movement Disorder Specialist and he said that this could be the reason for he chest pain.  That MSA has breathing problems associated with it SOB, which I have had since this all started in August.  But I wonder about the heart issue.......

Thank you so much for your response and time.  ~elisha

Elisha,

It is difficult for a bubble study to show a ventricular septal defect, unless there is some significant right to left flow--that is easier to demonstrate in the atrium, as both chambers are at relatively low pressures--but the ventricles should have significantly different pressures (left being much higher than the right). If you did demonstrate bubble cross-over from right to left ventricle, that suggests significant elevations in right ventricular pressures--which in and of itself can cause chest pain. (I am not looking at your studies, so this is all 3rd hand information. If what I state differs from your cardiologist--I would defer to his opinion, as he has your studies there.)