Symptoms:

Symptoms may be very noticeable, but sometimes you can have the disease and not have any symptoms.

Chest pain or discomfort (angina) is the most common symptom. You feel this pain when the heart is not getting enough blood or oxygen. How bad the pain is varies from person to person.

• It may feel heavy or like someone is squeezing your heart. You feel it under your breast bone (sternum), but also in your neck, arms, stomach, or upper back.
• The pain usually occurs with activity or emotion, and goes away with rest or a medicine called nitroglycerin.
• Other symptoms include shortness of breath and fatigue with activity (exertion).

Women, elderly people, and people with diabetes are more likely to have symptoms other than chest pain, such as:

• Fatigue
• Shortness of breath
• Weakness

See: Heart failure for symptoms of heart failure

Signs and tests:

Many tests help diagnose CHD. Usually, your doctor will order more than one test before making a diagnosis.

Tests may include:

• Coronary angiography/arteriography -- an invasive test that evaluates the heart arteries under x-ray
• CT angiography -- a noninvasive way to perform coronary angiography
• Echocardiogram
• Electrocardiogram (ECG)
• Electron-beam computed tomography (EBCT) to look for calcium in the lining of the arteries -- the more calcium, the higher your chance for CHD
• Exercise stress test
• Heart CT scan
• Magnetic resonance angiography
• Nuclear stress test