What is the reason for the chest tightness and pain

Anterior chest tightness and pain, also known as chest tightness, is a very common symptom and one that many people have experienced. As for chest tightness, there are generally two causes of this symptom: functional chest tightness and pathological chest tightness. Pathological chest tightness must be treated promptly. Below, we will introduce in detail the specific causes of chest tightness and pain.

1. Introduction to symptoms

Chest tightness is a subjective feeling of difficulty breathing or not having enough air. Those with mild symptoms will feel nothing serious, but those with severe symptoms will feel uncomfortable, as if a stone is pressing on their chest, and even have difficulty breathing. It may be a functional manifestation of the body's organs, or it may be one of the earliest symptoms of disease in the human body. The causes of chest tightness in people of different ages are different, the treatments are different, and the consequences are also different.

2. Functional chest tightness (i.e. chest tightness without organic lesions)

Staying in a room with closed doors and windows and poor air circulation for a long time, or encountering some unpleasant things, or even having quarrels or disputes with others, or being in a climate with low air pressure, will often cause feelings of chest tightness and fatigue. After a short rest, opening windows for ventilation or going outside to breathe fresh air, relaxing your mind and regulating your emotions, you will soon return to normal. This type of chest tightness can be said to be functional chest tightness, and there is no need to worry or seek treatment.

3. Pathological chest tightness (i.e. chest tightness caused by organic lesions)

Chest tightness can not only be physiological, but also be caused by diseases in certain organs in the body, that is, pathological chest tightness. like:

1. Respiratory obstruction: tumors in the trachea and bronchus, tracheal stenosis, and external pressure on the trachea (thyroid enlargement, tumors in the mediastinum);

2. Lung diseases: emphysema, bronchitis, asthma, atelectasis, pulmonary infarction, pneumothorax;

3. Heart disease: certain congenital heart diseases, rheumatic heart valve disease, coronary heart disease, heart tumors;

4. Diaphragmatic diseases: diaphragmatic swelling and diaphragmatic paralysis;

5. Disturbance of fluid metabolism and acid-base balance, etc.

Pathological chest tightness can occur suddenly or slowly. Most of the sudden occurrences are due to acute traumatic or spontaneous pneumothorax, acute asthma, acute foreign body in the trachea, acute heart attack, acute pulmonary infarction, etc. Chronic chest tightness is a condition in which symptoms gradually worsen as the disease progresses. Chest tightness in children is mostly caused by congenital heart disease or mediastinal tumors; chest tightness in young people is mostly caused by spontaneous pneumothorax, mediastinal tumors, or rheumatic heart valvular disease; chest tightness in the elderly is mostly caused by emphysema, coronary heart disease, etc.