What is chest pain?

Chest pain is any sort of pain felt in your chest area — from your shoulders to the bottom of your ribs.

How do I know if my chest pain is serious?

Chest pain can be a symptom of a heart attack or another heart condition. It's safest to consider the pain as heart-related until proven otherwise.

When should I call triple zero (000) and ask for an ambulance?

If you have any of the symptoms below, call triple zero (000) immediately and ask for an ambulance.

• Chest pain that is severe, getting worse or has lasted longer than 10 minutes.
• Chest pain that feels heavy, crushing or tight.
• Chest pain and other symptoms, such as breathlessness, nausea, dizziness or a cold sweat.
• Chest pain and pain in your jaw or down your left arm.
• Palpitations (a racing heart beat).

What should I do while waiting for the ambulance?

While waiting for an ambulance:

• stop all activities and rest
• loosen any tight clothing, such as collar buttons or ties
• don't have anything to eat or drink

If you have been prescribed angina medicine, sit or lie down and take a dose. If this doesn't relieve your symptoms in 5 minutes, try taking another dose.

Chew 300mg aspirin straight away, unless you're allergic or your doctor has told you not to.

Do not give aspirin to anyone under 12 years.

What are the warning signs of a heart attack?

There are several different warning signs of a heart attack, and they are not always sudden or severe.

Heart attack warning signs can include:

• Discomfort or pain in the centre of your chest — a heaviness, tightness or pressure, like something heavy sitting on your chest, or a belt tightening around your chest or a bad case of indigestion.
• Discomfort in your arms, shoulder, neck, jaw or back.

Other symptoms of heart attack can include:

• a choking feeling in your throat
• your arms feeling heavy or useless
• feeling short of breath
• nausea or vomiting
• having a cold sweat
• feeling dizzy or light-headed

People having a heart attack may have just one of these symptoms, or a combination of several. The symptoms can come on suddenly or develop over a few minutes and get worse. Symptoms usually last for at least 10 minutes.

Women and men can experience the signs and symptoms of a heart attack differently.

What are the causes of chest pain?

Chest pain can be a symptom of many different conditions, some of which are more serious than others.

Common heart-related causes of chest pain include:

• Angina — pain caused by poor blood flow to the heart muscle. It usually occurs when the heart needs to work harder than usual. This might be due to exercise, anxiety or emotion, cold weather or following a large meal. The pain usually eases with rest.
• Heart attack — when the blood flow to part of your heart muscle is blocked. Chest pain caused by a heart attack usually does not go away with rest. Urgent medical attention is needed.

Other common causes of chest pain include:

• indigestion (heartburn) or reflux
• muscle strains
• inflammation where the ribs join the breastbone (known as costochondritis)
• chest infections such as pneumonia
• pleurisy (inflammation of the tissue lining the lungs)
• anxiety or panic attacks

Less common causes of chest pain are:

• Shingles (herpes zoster) — an infection that typically causes pain before a skin rash appears.
• Inflammation of your gallbladder.
• Pulmonary embolism — a blood clot in your lungs. You may have sharp, stabbing chest pain that is worse when you breathe in.
• Myocarditis or pericarditis — inflammation of the muscles of your heart or the membrane surrounding your heart.
• Aortic dissection — a tear in your aorta causing sudden, severe chest pain that may go through to your back.
• Pneumothorax — when air leaks into the space between your lung and the chest wall.
• Silicosis — a long-term lung disease that is caused by inhaling (breathing in) silica dust.

All chest pain should be checked out by a doctor as soon as possible.

Resources and support

Visit the Heart Foundation for more information about heart attacks.

You can also call the healthdirect helpline on 1800 022 222 (known as NURSE-ON-CALL in Victoria). A registered nurse is available to speak with 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander peoples

Information designed in collaboration with Aboriginal people, to provide culturally appropriate Heart Health resources is available from St Vincent's Hospital Heart Health: Aboriginal Heart Health.

Other languages

The Heart Foundation also has heart health information in languages other than English.