Chest pain
Chest discomfort has many possible causes. Which details matter, and what a cardiology assessment involves.
Start with your symptoms
What are you
experiencing?
Symptoms rarely point to a single explanation. These pages describe the details that help a cardiologist, the situations that need urgent attention and what a consultation may involve.
Palpitations
Being aware of your heartbeat is common and often harmless. The pattern of the sensation, and what accompanies it, guides whether investigation is needed.
Breathlessness
Breathlessness has many explanations. Its timing, its triggers and what accompanies it help separate cardiac causes from the alternatives.
How symptoms are assessed
Context first, tests second.
A consultation begins with your history. Understanding when a symptom happens, what brings it on and what accompanies it usually narrows the possibilities more than any single test.
Your account of the symptom
When it started, how often it happens, how long it lasts and what makes it better or worse.
Your wider health
Medical history, medicines, family history and cardiovascular risk factors such as blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes and smoking.
Examination and basic tests
Examination, blood pressure and an ECG are often the starting point. Further tests are arranged only when they will change what happens next.
A plan you understand
The purpose of the consultation is a clear explanation of the findings and an agreed plan, including what to do if symptoms change.