Hi, Typing from the UK and new to the board so apologies if this is long. Currently taking diltiazim and GTN spray for possible angina (only medicated for past 2 weeks). stress ECG showed no abnormalities but only got to 85% max heart rate (dunno if I should have got to 100 - using bruce protocol). Don't get much chest pain that hasn't been attriuted to reflux but do get shoulder pains across left the right shoulder with pain in upper back on excercise most of which dissipates very quickly on resting. I'm grosssly overweight so doesn't take much excercise to get me going. BP 155/95, cholesterol 5.6 (not sure what US units are).
Anyway, the question is: can cardiac problems (angina) cause excessive burping or does anyone get it when having an attack?

My cardiologist says trapped wind in the esopagus can irritate the heart (I sometimes get big palpitations followed by big burps).

My concern is this: in the past 10 months I have had 3 episodes where I thought my chest was going to explode. I felt a tremendous pressure start to build up which felt like it was going up into my neck which lasted (at the longest for 45 mins). There was no pain in arms, no cold sweats or mostly anything I hear about when people talk about heart attacks so I and my GP put it down to esophageal reflux. However, I'm now concerned that these were heart attacks.

Does anyone know if cardiac incidents are associated with masses of wind or do you think this is a secondary esophageal/gerd effect unrelated to the as yet unconfirmed diagnosis of angina ?

Thanks and sorry for taking up so much of your time if you have managed to get to the end of this :)

eeeeean,:D

Can you feel like burping with angina? Yes sometimes.

I really think that very often angina and GERD tend to go together and it can be difficult deciding which is causing pain.

To help with a differential diagnosis:
1. If you get the pain on an empty stomach after exercise, it's probably angina.
2. If you can stop the pain by chewing 3 TUMS and drinking a glass of water, it's probably GERD.

My concern is this: in the past 10 months I have had 3 episodes where I thought my chest was going to explode. I felt a tremendous pressure start to build up which felt like it was going up into my neck which lasted (at the longest for 45 mins). There was no pain in arms, no cold sweats or mostly anything I hear about when people talk about heart attacks so I and my GP put it down to esophageal reflux. However, I'm now concerned that these were heart attacks.

THAT, my friend sounds like angina. The LONG one COULD have been a heart attack but that would have shown up on your ECG. Let's put it down to a long bout of UNSTABLE angina.

You are getting the right treatment (calcium channel blockers) BUT you need to go the next step, catheter angiography. I am assuming that your stress test did NOT include a heart scan with nuclear markers? If so, then you might want that done before the catheter...but personally, I think you are getting the catheter sooner or later anyway.
If you have any bockages, an angioplasty might be your answer.

If you think the whole thing might be BERD, then a couple months on an acid pump blocker like Prilosec, Nexium, or Aciphex will rule it out (or in.) Of course you can have BOTH (like me mum did <I'll be a temporary Brit>:D)

Thanks for the comments. Eating certainly seems to make things orse though I couldn't say for certain if it happens on empty stomach (I'll watch out for that one). I started to have another one of the chest inflating episodes today (its been a stressful day) after eating and managed to stave it off taking lots of windeze and doing some very deep burping. I'm fairly certain about this being gastric as the tension starts off in the epigastric region and I can feel the wind getting hold. Also, GTN did nothing to relieve it.

I'm seeing the cardiologist on Saturday and will ask for a diagnostic angiogram (actually I don't think I'll need to push much). At the moment I'm too frightened to move virtually in case I set off a heart attack :-(

One of my underlying concerns is that the early episodes were heart attacks and I may have some scarring which will compromise my heart.

thanks again for the input, its good to be able to 'talk'