What are exertional and non-exertional chest pain or heart problems, what do they mean? thanks for answering!!

Question

What are exertional and non-exertional chest pain or heart problems, what do they mean? thanks for answering!!

Answer 1

Chest pain, or angina, is related to ischemia (lack of blood flow) in the heart.  The terms are used to describe whether pain comes on during exercise (exertional) or at rest (non-exertional).  

Chest pain that happens at rest is more serious than chest pain during exercise, because the heart needs increased blood flow during exercise.  This is why we do stress tests, so we can see when the angina comes on.  If matters are so bad that you can't supply your heart even while sitting still on the couch, it's really serious and probably requires angioplasty, because somewhere arteries are either completely or nearly completely blocked.

Exertional chest pain should be carefully watched and followed, of course, but you might not do anything interventionally but just treat it medically.