chest tightness with deep breath
Are you one of those people who suffers from chest pain while taking deep breaths, and this has caused you concern?
If you have recently noticed that you feel pain and pressure in your chest while coughing and you want to know the causes that caused this problem and see how this problem can be solved, we recommend that you read on:
What you will read next:
Introduction
You must have seen in yourself and those around you that when you take a deep breath and cough, your chest hurts and you feel pressure and heaviness and you have pain in your chest. Doctors call this clinical condition pleurisy.
titles
Other titles include:
pleuritis:
It means inflammation of the pleura.
Pleurodynia, which means pain originating in the pleura.
If you want to know how pleurisy occurs and what causes you to feel pain and heaviness when you inhale deeply in your chest, read this article.
Pleurisy or chest pain when taking deep breaths
In fact, pleurisy, also known as pleuritis and pleurodynia, refers to inflammation and irritation of the pleural effusion. The pleura is a thin membrane with two layers, the inner layer lining the outer surface of the lungs and the outer layer lining the inner surface of the chest.
Any factor that causes inflammation of this membrane causes a clinical condition that causes you to notice that there is pain, pressure, heaviness and discomfort in your chest when you breathe deeply while coughing and sneezing. In other words, physicians do not consider pleurisy as an independent and separate disease, but as a clinical manifestation of the underlying causes of other diseases.
Another term we need to mention here is pleural effusion, which means that there should normally be very little fluid between the two layers of the membrane, In various conditions and diseases, fluid collects at the site of inflammation between two layers of membranes which is called pleural effusions.
What are the symptoms of pleurisy?
A person may feel chest pain when taking deep breaths and coughing. In other words, sudden chest pain that gets worse with deep breathing and coughing is characteristic of pleurisy, but the nature of the pain varies from person to person. One person can have a vague discomfort that occurs only when coughing, and another person who is at the other end of the spectrum can experience severe stabbing pain in the chest.
Another characteristic is that the pain that a person feels in the chest is usually felt at the site of inflammation of the pleura, but it may be felt in other parts of the chest, especially the lower parts of the chest as well as the upper abdomen.
Other accompanying symptoms include:
- Shortness of breath
- Plural effusion
- Fast breathing
- Shallow breathing
- And a feeling of discomfort when moving towards the affected site and sometimes there is a fever.
What causes pleurisy?
We have said that pleurisy itself is not an independent disease.
Chest pain when coughing or deep breathing is a manifestation or a symptom that indicates a disease and a disorder in the background. Among the most common causes associated with pleurisy are listed below:
These cases, of which pleurisy is a complication, include lung infections, chest infections, for example:
- Pneumonia
- Viral infections, especially Coxsackie virus infections
- Bronchiectasis
- Lung collapse
- Pneumothorax
- Blood clots in the terminal arteries of the lungs
- Pulmonary embolism
- Lung tumors
- Metastasis of tumors and cancers in other areas of the body
Chest trauma
Rib fractures and collagen vascular and autoimmune diseases such as lupus, diffuse erythematosus or rheumatoid arthritis.
In addition to the above factors that originate from the respiratory system, there are three other causes that can cause pleurisy-like manifestations, these three causes are congestive heart failure, liver disorders, disorders and kidney failure.
What are the risk factors for pleurisy?
What people are more likely to develop pleurisy?
Obesity, Smoking and tobacco use in any form, weakened immune system, for example, people who take immunosuppressive drugs are more prone to pleurisy than other people in the community.
What are the complications of pleurisy?
- Pneumonia
- Compression, collapse of part of the lung (Pneumothorax)
- Respiratory disorder
- Pleural effusion
- Development of adhesions and scars in the inflamed area, which can later limit lung dilation and cause respiratory failure and secondary problems to limit the power of dilatation.
Diagnosis
- Get a detailed history:
Full information about the symptoms and manifestations along with receiving a history of individual illnesses, receiving a list of medications taken by the person, receiving a history of recent surgery or trauma and accident or falling from a height, and questioning about the history of habits and family history of diseases is also important.
- The next step is observation and clinical examination
Depending on the patient's condition, the physician will use a clinical examination, which may include an auditory lung scan.
Sometimes it is necessary for the doctor to compile a list of differential diagnoses based on the accompanying symptoms and manifestations, and to reject or confirm them, in addition to the history and examination, paraclinical diagnostic methods are also used.
Paraclinical procedures in these cases, which are commonly used by physicians, include the following: requesting a blood test to confirm or rule out an infection; and or to confirm and rule out autoimmune diseases. Request chest radiographs with CT scan MRI and sometimes biopsy of suspected tissue and pleural effusion.
treatment
The goal of treatment for pleurisy is to eliminate the known underlying cause that caused the pleurisy.
So the treatment varies from person to person and is completely dependent on the underlying cause of the pleurisy. To relieve chest pain, the whole chest is sometimes wrapped with two or three rounds of non-stick bandage with15 cm wide. Doctors say that if there is a cough, a cold humidifier should be used to dilute the lung secretions and facilitate their evacuation.
The humidifier should be cleaned daily and it is also recommended to press only one pillow firmly on your chest each time you cough to make coughing easier and less uncomfortable.
Medications used to treat pleurisy can vary from person to person depending on the underlying cause.
These drugs include:
- In the presence of bacterial infections, appropriate antibiotics
- Breathing dilator sprays with bronchodilators if needed
- Analgesics that should be prescribed by a doctor, but sometimes in mild pleurisy, simple painkillers such as acetaminophen or NSAIDs may be sufficient to relieve the pain.
In what cases should you see a doctor if you experience chest pain when coughing and deep breathing?
If you have a fever with your chest pain, If you have a sudden and progressive shortness of breath with your chest pain, If you have bloody sputum with your chest pain, If you have dark fingernails or toenails or lips with your chest pain, If your chest pain is progressively worsening, If you have a dry cough or you vomit blood with coughing, in these cases it is better to call the emergency room as soon as possible.
Important Note: If you have recently undergone major surgery, if you have a malignancy, if you are overweight, if you are sedentary, if you are pregnant, and if you find that you suddenly have shortness of breath, severe chest pain and a severe cough, you should call the emergency room immediately with the suspicion of pulmonary embolism.