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Unstable angina - Symptom

Alternative Names

Accelerating angina; New-onset angina; Angina - unstable; Progressive angina

Symptoms:

Symptoms include:

Sudden chest pain that may also be felt in the shoulder, arm, jaw, neck, back, or other area
Pain that feels like tightness, squeezing, crushing, burning, choking, or aching
Pain that occurs at rest and does not easily go away when using medicine

If you have stable angina, you may be developing unstable angina if the chest pain:

Starts to feel different
Lasts longer than 15 - 20 minutes
Occurs at different times

Signs and tests:

The doctor will perform a physical examination and check your blood pressure. The doctor may hear abnormal sounds, such as a heart murmur or irregular heartbeat, when listening to your chest with a stethoscope.

Tests to diagnose angina include:

Blood tests to check the levels of creatine phosphokinase (CPK), myoglobin, and troponin I and T
Coronary angiography
ECG
Echocardiography
Stress tests
- Exercise or chemically-induced stress test (adenosine, dobutamine)
- Non-imaging (exercise treadmill) or imaging (nuclear stress test, echo stress test)

Coronary artery balloon angioplasty - series

Reviewed last on: 7/15/2008
Alan Berger, MD, Assistant Professor, Divisions of Cardiology and Epidemiology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN. Review provided by VeriMed Healthcare Network. Also reviewed by David Zieve, MD, MHA, Medical Director, A.D.A.M., Inc.

References

Anderson JL, Adams CD, Antman EM, Bridges CR, Califf RM, Casey DE Jr., et al. ACC/AHA 2007 guidelines for the management of patients with unstable angina/non-ST-Elevation myocardial infarction: a report of the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Task Force on Practice Guidelines (Writing Committee to Revise the 2002 Guidelines for the Management of Patients With Unstable Angina/Non-ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction) developed in collaboration with the American College of Emergency Physicians, the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions, and the Society of Thoracic Surgeons endorsed by the American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation and the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2007;50:e1-e157.

Antman EM. ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction: Management. In: Libby P, Bonow RO, Mann DL, Zipes DP, eds. Braunwald's Heart Disease: A Textbook of Cardiovascular Medicine. 8th ed. Philadelphia, Pa: Saunders Elsevier; 2007:chap 51.

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