Can costochondritis cause random chest pains?

Question

Hello doctor,

I get pain randomly, like once a day for three minutes. It is very mild. When I touch my left and right chest, the left chest feels a little rough. I do not get pain when I walk or eat food. Is this pain because of any heart problem or heat? I have had this problem for the past one and a half months and have not taken any medication for it. Even if I do heavy exercise, I do not feel pain. When I am relaxing, sometimes I feel left chest pain. Please let me know if this is caused by any heart problem.

Thank you.

Answer 1

Hello,

Welcome to icliniq.com.

In all probability, this is a pain of non-cardiac origin, based on the given description. Women are known to suffer from costochondritis, which is inflammation of the sternal cartilage that connects ribs to the sternum and can cause significant discomfort. Nevertheless, I would just advise an ECG (electrocardiogram) as a basic investigation to rule out rare causes for your age group, such as blocks in the heart vessels, which are very unlikely, or cardiac chamber enlargement (secondary to a hole in the heart).

I hope this helps.

Please revert so I can assist you further.

Thank you.