I get this too, I have also been told I have fibro, I cant work out if its angina, one Dr says it is the other says its anxiety etc
Driving me mad!

There is no set rule for Angina. You can have Stable Angina which just means it only occurs during or immediately after physical exertion or my personal favorite Unstable Angina which strikes at any time including at rest.

Angina is what I lovingly refer to as a heart fart. It's basically a spasm in the heart muscle or valve and causes pain in the chest area which usually dissipates in 15 minutes, longer and it may be an MI (Heart Attack)

Sadly there are other things that mimic Angina and can confuse you. I know from experience that GERD (Gastro Esophogeal Reflux Disease) is one that I really cannot tell apart from Heart issues.

So how do you tell the difference? Well the only method I found was to take a nitroglycerin tablet sublingual (under the tongue) if after taking no more than 3 nitro tablets separated by 5 minutes each the pain does not subside then it's something else.

Now to you specifically. All I can say is ask the doctor why he/she does not believe this to be classic Angina. It's not enough for them to just make a statement that it's not Angina, make them explain how they can tell that.

Good luck to you.

Thank you so much for answering me, it made a lot of sense when you said about the heart fart. I have been given the GTN spray and it does work but the cardiologist said that it relaxes the muscles so would help with Fibromyalgia. Just because we have this illness does not mean other illnesses should be dismissed. I guess I will just have to wait for the CAT scan, hopefully this will find out if there is a problem with my heart.

Did you find the Nitro spray gave you any side effects?

Yes, the spray gives me an immediate bad headache or migraine. I try to avoid taking it unless the pain or really bad and in my chest and my arm. Don't know it that is right or not but I just try to ignore when the pain is only in one place. Have you take the spray? How do you find it? It also makes my left arm heavy but takes the pain away.

Hello, too scared as yet to spray the nitro, I suffer with migrains and don't want that aswell! I will spray it if I have to though!

Hi, I've used the Spray a few times now but only when it is really bad and in both my back and arm. I found it better when i sprayed further away from my tongue, just slightly further away if that makes sense. Also I took two pain killers and a migraine tablet just before and got an ice pack and deep freeze for my neck before taking. I done this due to getting immediate migraine the first couple of times, even before the spray started to work. I do get really bad migraines and previously had emergency doctors out to give me an injection to take away the pain so I don't take the spray unless I feel really worried that it could be my heart. The way I look upon it is that if it is my heart and I am preventing long term damage or something worse it's worth risking a migraine. But the preventative has helped and now it can be just a bad headache but the chest pain goes away.