Submitted by Dr T on March 14, 2011 – 7:29pm
These symptoms have been going on since Nov 2010, and have in the last 2 weeks gotten worse. I have had a stress test with echo,standard chest CT with contrast, echo of heart and several basic blood tests. My lightheadedness is getting worse along with my chest pain. I also had a D-dimer test recently(2 weeks ago), which was negative. My thought is the possibility of me having a clot in the left arm that has gone into the chest and has caused me to have bad chest pain and worsening lightheadedness. So bad that I am not sleeping well. The lightheadedness also causes me to wake up many times. Would the D-dimer test pick up a clot that may have been there in the arm since November of last year? I am concerned that since I did not have a CTA, that a PE could have been missed, with just having a standard CT with contrast. I have this concern because of my job for the past year, requires sitting down for long periods of time doing documentation work. Wonder if a clot may have traveled from the leg, to the left arm/underarm and then to the chest.This has been going on for too long now, and has gotten worse. Don’t think I would be as worried, if I didn’t have the bad lightheadedness that has gotten worse. Hoping to get better since I have two young kids. Thanks so much for your time
All your tests have returned normal, and nothing in your history suggests a PE. PEs come from clots made elsewhere and need to be big enough to cause local symptoms, such as swollen legs. There is no way for a clot to to travel from your legs to your arm.
Also if these symptoms started s months ago, with all these tests something would have shown up. There are many forms of chest pain, some serious, some not at all:
https://www.cardiachealth.org/ca-blog/chest-pain/
Your tale reminds me of another blog I wrote a while ago, chest pains associated with stress:
https://www.cardiachealth.org/ca-blog/stress-and-chest-pains-in-a-35-yo
Light headedness is difficult assess from here. You should have it checked with your blood pressure taken upright and laying down with some time in between. If there is a big difference it is sometimes is associated with a excessively fast heart rate:
https://www.cardiachealth.org/ca-blog/pots-and-pvcs/
Hope this helps,
Dr T
https://www.cardiachealth.org/