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Chest Pain Clinic
At Heartscope's Chest Pain Clinic, a cardiologist looks at your symptoms and test results to help find the cause of the pain and discuss treatment. Your GP or specialist can refer you for an appointment.
Chest discomfort can feel like pressure, heaviness, tightness or burning. You may feel it in the centre of your chest or spreading to your shoulders, arms, neck, jaw or back. Even mild discomfort can need medical attention.
The pattern gives useful clues: when the discomfort starts, how long it lasts and what happens at the same time. Doctors weigh those clues alongside an examination and test results, because the feeling alone can't reliably identify the cause. More than one problem can occur together, such as reflux alongside a heart condition.
The Chest Pain Clinic is for people whose GP has checked their symptoms and recommended a specialist appointment. It isn't an emergency service.
Call triple zero (000) for severe, worsening or persistent chest pain, or chest discomfort with breathlessness, sweating, nausea or pain spreading to your arm, jaw or back.
Do not wait for a routine appointment or drive yourself to hospital.
Your description helps your doctor decide which checks or tests you need.
Tell your doctor how long the pain lasted, whether it's happening more often and what you were doing when it began: walking, climbing stairs or resting, for example. If you've been diagnosed with stable angina, explain any change from your usual pattern. Pain easing with rest doesn't prove that angina is the cause.
Describe any difference when you take a deep breath, move your upper body or lie down. Pericarditis often hurts more when breathing in or lying flat, but other conditions can feel similar.
Tell your doctor about symptoms that occur with the pain, such as breathlessness, palpitations (a racing or unusually noticeable heartbeat), feeling faint, sweating, nausea, a cough or fever. Mention any recent illness, existing heart or lung conditions, and the medicines you take.
Angina happens when the heart muscle doesn't get enough oxygen-rich blood. Often, fatty deposits called plaque have narrowed the coronary arteries, which supply blood to the heart. Angina may start during activity, when your heart needs more blood. A heart attack damages the heart muscle and needs emergency treatment, and it can feel like angina.
Inflammation can also cause chest pain. Pericarditis is inflammation of the lining around the heart; myocarditis affects the heart muscle itself. These conditions need different treatment from narrowed arteries.
A chest infection or inflammation around the lungs can cause pain. So can a blood clot in the lungs, known as a pulmonary embolism, which is a serious condition. Pain from the ribs or chest muscles may be due to a strain or costochondritis, inflammation of the cartilage joining the ribs to the breastbone. Pain that changes with breathing or movement still needs a doctor to check the cause.
With reflux, stomach acid rises into the oesophagus. This can cause burning behind the breastbone, a sour taste or food coming back into the throat. Reflux pain can resemble heart pain, so a previous reflux diagnosis doesn't explain every new episode.
For angina, medicines can ease symptoms and reduce the risk of future heart problems. Treating high blood pressure or cholesterol, and stopping smoking, can also help. Your doctor will advise which activities are suitable. Some people need a stent to open a narrowed artery, or bypass surgery to send blood around a blockage. Your cardiologist will explain whether either is needed based on your symptoms and test results.
For pericarditis, treatment can include medicines that reduce inflammation and advice about activity while you recover. Your doctor may change treatment as the illness develops. Some people need to stay in hospital for monitoring and treatment.
If reflux is the cause, your GP may suggest changes to eating habits and medicines to reduce stomach acid. Let them know if treatment isn't helping or the pain changes.
In an emergency department, doctors use an electrocardiogram (ECG) to record the heart's electrical activity and a blood test to measure troponin, a protein released when heart muscle is injured. They may repeat both tests because the findings can change over time. A normal first ECG doesn't rule out a heart attack, and a raised troponin needs to be interpreted with the symptoms and other findings.
At a routine appointment, the cardiologist chooses tests based on the suspected cause of the symptoms. An echocardiogram shows the heart's chambers and valves and how well it pumps. It can identify structural or pumping problems that need different treatment from narrowed arteries.
A stress echocardiogram compares the heart muscle's movement at rest and after exercise, when it needs more blood. The comparison can help identify areas where the muscle receives too little blood during exercise. A CT coronary angiogram takes detailed pictures of the arteries supplying the heart and is performed by a separate imaging provider. Each test answers a different question, so not everyone with chest pain needs all of them.
If a stent or bypass surgery is recommended, a separate referral to hospital is needed.
A valid referral from your GP or specialist is needed for a chest pain consultation. GP notes and hospital results help the cardiologist understand what's already been checked. The clinic will go through the appointment details with you, including whether you need to prepare.
Consultations are privately billed. If you're eligible, Medicare pays part of the consultation fee when you have a valid referral from your GP or specialist. The clinic will confirm the amount left to pay before the visit.
The cardiologist will write to your GP explaining what was found and any treatment or further appointments recommended. Tests may need separate appointments and have separate fees.
Heartscope cardiologists see patients at clinics in Melbourne and Queensland. If you have a referral, our team can confirm the location and appointment details.
View clinic locationsYes, if your GP or specialist refers you. Heartscope doesn't provide emergency care or perform hospital procedures.
No. Angina means the heart muscle isn't getting enough blood, and unlike a heart attack, it doesn't cause permanent damage to the heart muscle. The symptoms can feel similar, so a doctor needs to check chest pain to tell them apart.
Tell your doctor if the pain continues or changes. They can explain what your results do and don't tell you, and whether more tests would help.
Yes. Someone can have reflux and a heart condition at the same time, so one diagnosis doesn't mean every episode of chest pain has the same cause.
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