Chest tightness can have various causes, ranging in severity from 'troubling' to 'generally fatal'. Finding the true cause means ruling out or confirming each possibility – in other words, diagnosis.
Diagnosis is usually a complex process due to the sheer number of possible causes and related symptoms. In order to diagnose chest tightness, we could:
Cause | Probability | Status |
---|---|---|
Pulmonary Fibrosis | 99% | Confirm |
Electrical Hypersensitivity | 26% | Unlikely |
Angina | 3% | Ruled out |
Asthma | 2% | Ruled out |
Anxiety | 0% | Ruled out |
Do you experience tightness or pressure in your chest? Do not mention pain here.
Possible responses:
→ Don't know→ No → Rarely → Frequently → Most of the time |
As the airways become inflamed and filled with mucus, and the smooth muscles in the airways constrict, chest tightness may be experienced as the feeling of not being able to move air in and out of the lungs. This feeling may in turn increase anxiety, which worsens the feeling of tightness. These may occur after exposure to a trigger, or a specific irritant, or after exercise.