Humans are painful creatures, quite often a banal cold is followed by a strong cough accompanied by chest pain. Most often, such pains indicate the pleura and pericardial region. Many believe that the chest area can only hurt with heart disease, but this is not the case, for pain in chest most often indicates improper breathing. Pains can be dull and sharp, they appear in the right or left side.
The main causes of chest pain when coughing
If a person has an inflammation of the membrane (membranes cover the lungs and line chest cavity from the inside), then there is pain in the chest area when inhaling. If the cough is dry, it is most likely pneumonia.
When the chest hurts with dry pleurisy, you need to lie on the affected side and it will become a little easier to breathe. Also, with pneumonia, weakened pleural friction noises can be heard during breathing. This illness may be accompanied by weakness, night sweats, or chills.
If there is damage to the rib cage or thoracic, pain during breathing may occur, in this case it is necessary to consult a surgeon.
Dry cough pain can range from mild to violent. When strong and painful sensations begin in the chest area, the person decreases the depth of breathing when inhaling, which aggravates shortness of breath.
If the interpleural ligaments are shortened, sharp pains may occur during a dry cough. Most often, such a cough appears when running, talking, taking a deep breath and other physical activity. The interpleural ligament is a formation due to the fusion of the parietal and visceral sheets of the pleura; they appear in the area of \u200b\u200bthe lung root.
When a person gets a cold or ARVI, he has a cough, which causes chest pains. Feelings like this are indicative of what begins inflammatory process in the patient's body.
If the cough is constant and strong, it is simply impossible for a person to breathe normally, this is a signal that a malignant tumor has appeared in the area of \u200b\u200bthe lungs. The swelling is accompanied by shingles, sharp or stabbing pain in the chest area. Such discomfort can appear in the same place, or in a certain part of the chest, and these pains can also go to the neck and arms. If the tumor has spread to the spine or ribs, it immediately enlarges and begins to develop intensely. In such cases, you should immediately contact a qualified technician.
When a person has tuberculosis, dry or moist coughaccompanied by pain in the chest area. With any stress that the body experiences, a cough begins, during which it hurts to breathe.
Another reason for the appearance of chest pain is a stretching of the muscles or simply a breasts piercing through. With such diseases, a dry cough appears, which is then accompanied by minor chest pain. After the patient undergoes a course of treatment, all pains stop and nothing else bothers.
When a severe cough begins, which simply cannot be cured, especially if it is a complication of a cold, you need to see a doctor. Such manifestations of the body can be a signal that the mucous membrane, lung tissue or pleura is damaged. With such diseases, phlegm may begin to flow poorly, or a separation of small parts of the mucous membrane appears. Most often, with such a strong dry cough, expectoration appears in the form of streaks of blood, while this content is very small. Of course, it is best when, when coughing, all the sputum leaves the body well, this leads to a faster recovery.
How to relieve chest pain when coughing
If chest pain is due to a muscle strain, it is best to use a warming ointment. Buy a good ointment at the pharmacy, apply to the sore spot and rub well. The ointment must be rubbed all over the body so that the sore area is hot, this must be done several times a day, for three days.
Also, to reduce the cough, which is accompanied by pain, you can use various antitussive drugs. These pills reduce the number of cough attacks by blocking the cough center. There are drugs that reduce the discharge of sputum, this should be bought by those who have good sputum excretion.
But if the cough is dry and not accompanied by any secretions, you need to carefully approach the choice of medicine, it is best to consult a specialist. In all other cases, it is possible to get rid of chest pain by taking drugs that increase and dilute the expectoration of phlegm. You also need to focus on antiviral and antibacterial drugs, which reduce the level of intoxication in the body. You also need to drink a lot of liquids, especially liquids with a weak alkaline reaction.
Squeezing, stitching and other discomfort in the chest area, as a rule, indicate diseases of the respiratory tract, especially if there is a cough. but this symptom is not always a sign of bronchitis, pneumonia, or tuberculosis. It happens that when coughing, it hurts in the chest due to pathologies of the heart, digestive, nervous system and diseases of the musculoskeletal system.
Why does the chest hurt when coughing?
The main reasons for the condition under consideration are pathologies of the respiratory tract:
- acute, chronical bronchitis;
- ARVI;
- pulmonary embolism;
- tracheitis;
- chronic obstructive pulmonary disease;
- pleurisy (inflammation of the lung membrane);
- bronchial asthma;
- pneumothorax;
- pharyngitis;
- bronchiectasis;
- emphysema of the lungs.
With these diseases, a strong dry or wet cough develops and the chest hurts. These clinical manifestations can occur in the form of seizures, often observed at night and in the morning.
In addition, the following diseases and conditions become the causes of pain in the chest area:
- destruction, injury of the rib cage;
- osteocondritis of the spine;
- tumors in the chest;
- cardiovascular diseases;
- intercostal neuralgia;
- reflux esophagitis;
- allergic reaction;
- heart failure;
- availability foreign body in the respiratory tract;
- epiglottitis;
- shortening of the interpreural ligament;
- renal colic.
It is worth noting that the above list of pathologies is rarely accompanied by a cough. If this symptom is present, it is likely that there are concomitant diseases.
What to do if the chest hurts from a cough?
To start treatment, it is important to establish the cause of the described clinical manifestations... Therefore, you should contact several specialists:
- therapist;
- otolaryngologist;
- pulmonologist;
- neuropathologist;
- surgeon;
- oncologist.
When the factor provoking the problem is found out, you need to pay attention to the nature of the cough and the presence of accompanying symptoms.
If the cause of the pain syndrome is a neurological disease or osteochondrosis, it is necessary to reduce the load on the spine, perform warming up and take non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs).
With a dry, painful cough, the use of antitussive drugs is required. They help to suppress seizures, ensure a normal night's sleep. Additionally, you can take NSAIDs to relieve pain.
People get colds very often. Someone takes sick leave and lies under the covers, drinking tea with raspberries, someone cheerfully carries them on their feet. This illness does not last very long and, as a rule, the patient quickly returns to normal work activities.
But it happens that the body's defenses are not enough to withstand the fight against the microbe. Then complications occur that would not normally arise.
A common cold is often mistakenly called any respiratory disease, which is accompanied by intoxication and catarrhal syndrome. In fact, in case of a cold, the causative agent of the disease is not a virus or bacteria that has entered from the outside, but its own opportunistic microorganisms.
A cold occurs due to hypothermia of the body. Cold causes vasospasm. As a result, local immunity suffers, natural anti-infectious substances do not sufficiently enter the tissues. This leads to the activation and reproduction of bacteria, with which the organism has not previously encountered conflicts.
As a rule, after hypothermia, a person develops the same symptoms every time. That is, he has a chronic infection. For example, rhinitis, tonsillitis, tracheitis, bronchitis.
The duration of disability for a cold is usually no more than a week. After the person recovers quite quickly.
The symptoms of the disease appear elevated temperature body, runny nose, cough, weakness, increased fatigue. Often sore throat and difficulty swallowing.
However, under certain conditions, a common cold is complicated by diseases of the respiratory tract, otitis media, sinusitis.
The presence of foci of chronic infection in the body leads to the fact that the local immune system constantly fights against pathogenic microorganisms. So far so good, immunity wins. But as soon as this balance is disturbed, the defenses fail. Hypothermia is most often the cause.
Conditionally pathogenic microbes become capable of causing disease. Moreover, bacteria tend to capture new areas of the respiratory epithelium. At the same time, they say that the infection "went down".
The symptoms of the disease do not go away, but only progress. When high temperature, increased cough and the occurrence of pain in the chest, the patient can no longer self-medicate and consults a doctor.
The symptoms of bronchitis are usually as follows:
- cough. May be dry or wet with phlegm. Sputum is difficult to separate after prolonged cough... Its color at this stage is always green;
- a violent, tearing cough that can cause
- body temperature becomes subfebrile, as a rule, rises in the evening and is very tired. At such a temperature, severe weakness appears, sometimes it can throw in sweat;
- voice becomes hoarse, throat hurts when talking.
- If treatment is not started in a timely manner, then this form can turn into pneumonia.
When pneumonia occurs after a cold, it is most often caused by hemophilus influenzae.
It so happens that a person suffers a cold on his feet, the symptoms fade away, but do not completely go away. And the general condition is getting worse. This can last for several weeks, until such a patient turns to the doctor with the words: "Doctor, I am worried about constant weakness, but when I cough or sneeze,".
A specialist will thoroughly examine such a patient, after which he will immediately send a chest X-ray. It is likely that she will find pneumonia.
Clinical signs of classic pneumonia include fever, cough, malaise, chest pain, and other symptoms are more pronounced than with a cold. However, even if there is no cough or fever, but there is weakness and a feeling that something hurts in the chest, the first thing to do is to suspect pneumonia.
Chest pain after coughing means pleurisy.
A running cold or untreated pneumonia can ultimately lead to pleurisy. The patient is worried about severe shortness of breath, cough, chest pains with a deep breath. The nature of the cough depends on the presence of concomitant pneumonia and the type of pleurisy. With fibrous pleurisy, the cough is dry, due to irritation of the receptors by sticky pleural sheets. After the transition of dry pleurisy to exudative cough disappears.
Chest pains are localized on the side of the pathological process. Often, due to pain, the patient takes a lateral position.
Sinusitis after a cold.
Sinusitis is an inflammation of the lining of the sinus. It manifests itself in the form of nasal congestion, a feeling of fullness. Headache does not subside even after a pain reliever pill. Discharge from the nose, profuse, purulent. A nasal voice may appear. At night and in the morning, the patient is worried about a dry cough caused by irritation of the cough receptors of the sinus. With a special structure of the sinuses, the process can acquire a chronic course.
When otitis media occurs after hypothermia.
Ear infections are common because the tympanic cavity is connected to the mouth through the Eustachian tube. Bacteria enter the middle ear, causing otitis media. It is manifested by shooting pain and ear congestion, headache, fever. If you press your finger on the tragus, the pain increases many times over. Lymph nodes in the parotid region, the back of the head and neck are often enlarged.
How to prevent complications
First of all, you must immediately start treating the disease.
For effective treatment sometimes symptomatic remedies are enough: antipyretic, throat spray, nose drops, expectorant drugs can be taken for coughs.
In some cases, the disease requires the use of antibiotics.
In any case, you need to see a doctor and carefully follow his instructions.
Cough is a way of clearing the airways, but it does not only occur as a result of irritation of sensitive receptors with mucus during inflammation or dust particles when inhaling polluted air. Cough and chest pain are observed in heart disease, neurological, tumor diseases, cracks, fractures of the ribs or sternum.
Mechanical shocks when coughing irritate sensitive nerve endings (receptors), and the person may feel pain in the chest. Anatomically, the respiratory organs and the mediastinal region are located in it - the space between the right and left lungs, bounded by the sternum and spine, and below by the diaphragm.
Respiratory organs and mediastinal regions are well innervated by branches of the vagus nerve, equipped with many receptors. Mechanical squeezing during a cough thrust can irritate the receptor and cause pain in the esophagus, heart, trachea, sternum.
Sources of pain are mainly:
- pleura - inflammation of the pleura or interpleural ligament;
- pericardium;
- tumors, cysts of the mediastinum;
- chest muscles;
- bone frame - sternum, ribs, spine.
The reasons
After suffering from acute respiratory infections, sometimes discomfort does not go away in the chest for a long time, unpleasant sensations arise from coughing, it hurts for some time after recovery. This chest pain is temporary and is caused by overstrain of the respiratory muscles during illness when coughing.
This kind of condition does not pose a threat to human health. It is enough to continue taking expectorant drugs to stop the coughing attacks.
It is much more dangerous if a person has chest pains for such a reason as myeloma, in which there is a constant coughing and coughing discomfort in the chest increases.
Multiple myeloma is bone marrow cancer. This is a rare disease, but the likelihood of it with a chronic cough that does not go away for several weeks must be ruled out. To do this, it is necessary to undergo an examination, this will help identify the real cause of pain in the sternum and chest when coughing.
Most frequent reasons prolonged chest discomfort, which increases with attacks of cough shocks, are:
- diseases of the respiratory system;
- pneumonia;
- pleurisy;
- bronchitis;
- tracheitis;
- epiglottitis;
- asthma;
- embolism;
- heart disease;
- trauma;
- fractures or cracks in the ribs, clavicle, sternum;
- foreign body in the respiratory tract;
- tumors of the mediastinal organs;
- neurological diseases - most often intercostal neuralgia;
- allergy - anaphylactic shock;
- smoking;
- idiopathic (unreasonable).
Why does the chest hurt, what to do if there is chest pain, in what diseases does it intensify from coughing?
Respiratory diseases
With reduced immunity, in older people, pneumonia can be atypical, with mild symptoms. The only signs of pneumonia may in such cases be chest pain and dry cough.
Discomfort can also occur during the recovery phase after pneumonia. A cough with acute chest pain can be caused by complications of pneumonia, including:
- adhesions in the pleural cavity - sharp, pulling pain, aggravated by coughing and deepening breathing;
- pulmonary fibrosis - after pneumonia, scars form in the lung tissue that impede the normal functioning of the lungs;
- lung abscess - in the lung after pneumonia, a cavity filled with pus remains, this focus of inflammation is manifested by a dry cough, chest pain.
Dry cough and chest pain occur with pleurisy, as a complication of pneumonia. Pain in pleurisy depends on the position of the body, subsides when lying on the sore side, increases with inhalation, coughing, swallowing.
The chest hurts with tracheitis, bronchitis, laryngitis - frequent diseases in a child, which are always accompanied strong cough... The thrill is often muscular in nature and is caused by overwork of the respiratory muscles due to severe coughing attacks.
The inflammatory process affecting the interpleural ligament, located between the inner and outer sheets of the pleura, leads to its shortening, which causes chest pain, aggravated by coughing and inhalation.
Painful cough tremors are noted with colds, which are complicated by inflammation of the bronchi, trachea, epiglottis (epiglottitis).
Cough is a must bronchial asthma... With asthma, coughing is almost always associated with chest pain, a burning sensation, a feeling that a person cannot fill the chest with air.
Heart diseases
After suffering pneumonia, the patient may develop an infectious lesion:
- myocardium - the disease is called myocarditis;
- pericardium or pericardial sac - pericarditis.
Pericarditis can proceed without fever, accompanied by acute sensations with coughing fits, which can be permanent or appear periodically. The condition differs from a heart attack in that the attack does not subside after taking nitroglycerin, but is stopped with the help of painkillers.
Myocarditis is characterized by pain localized in the heart, arrhythmia, shortness of breath. Myocarditis develops after ARVI, and the appearance of pain in the heart is preceded by cough, fever, and runny nose.
Trauma
A severe bruise to the chest can cause a fracture or fissure of the chest bones. The injury can cause acute pain in which the slightest movement is uncomfortable.
In 60% of cases, fractures affect the lungs and pleura, as a result of which the patient for a long time with a deep breath, careless turn, coughing, there is discomfort in the chest.
A blow to the chest can fracture the sternum. If after such an injury it hurts in the chest behind the sternum, and the pain when coughing becomes very severe, then this may well be one of the types of fractures of the sternum, which is confirmed by an x-ray.
Cracked ribs are a dangerous trauma for bedridden patients and the elderly. When the rib is cracked, it hurts the victim to cough up phlegm, sharp pain occurs in the chest when coughing, and mucus stagnates in the bronchi.
In this case, any harmless rhinitis threatens to develop into pneumonia. In older people, a rib fracture can provoke pneumonia as early as the second day after a blow or fall, which led to injury.
Chest pain in a child, if it increases with coughing, touching the bruise, may indicate an injury to the ribs or sternum. To help the child, parents should provide trauma care.
Anaphylactic shock
Chest pain and coughing can occur with developing anaphylactic shock. This serious condition is life-threatening, accompanied by swelling of the tissues of the face, larynx, and threatens with suffocation.
The cough appears on early stage anaphylactic shock. In such a situation, the patient must immediately call an ambulance.
Intercostal neuralgia
The main discomfort with intercostal neuralgia, patients experience from chest pain, which is often mistaken for a heart attack. The pain can be constant or intermittent.
The cough increases the discomfort. The sensations can be so sharp that the patient experiences difficulty breathing, which causes him convulsions, dizziness.
Tumors, cysts of the mediastinum
In diseases of the mediastinal organs, pain is felt with cough shocks in the middle of the chest and behind the sternum, the cough is usually dry or with a small amount of sputum. In this area, up to 100 different types tumors and cysts.
Most often found in the mediastinum:
- tumors;
- thymus gland;
- nervous tissue;
- lymphoid tissue;
- germ cell - caused by intrauterine malformation, affect mainly children and adolescents;
- cysts, mainly of the thymus.
Malignant tumors of the mediastinum are rare and account for only 1% of the total number of oncological diseases. The insidiousness of this disease is that it appears more often at a young age, in socially active 30-40-year-old people.
Chest pain and a cough that does not rise in temperature is one of the signs of a tumor in the mediastinum. At the same time, the cough becomes chronic, accompanied by tachycardia, shortness of breath.
One of the rarest types of mediastinal tumors is germ cell cancer. This type of tumor can develop in a child from 6 months to 4 years old, such a neoplasm is manifested by chest pain, shortness of breath, and coughing.
Tumors of the mediastinum are well diagnosed using radiographs, computed tomography. And, if a child complains that his chest hurts when he coughs, gets tired quickly and suffocates from outdoor games, he must be carefully examined in order to exclude the slightest likelihood of neoplasms of the mediastinum.
Smoking
Cough pains are experienced by smokers with experience. Discomfort often does not leave even those of them who have abandoned this bad habit. The greatest health hazard to a smoker is high risk heart disease, lung tumor, COPD.
All these diseases are accompanied by chest discomfort, cough, deterioration of health and gradual disability. You can learn more about the effects of smoking on human health in the section "Smoking".
Content:
The causes of chest pain when coughing can be very diverse, more often it is associated with cardiovascular diseases, respiratory diseases, and infections can also be a source. Acute chest pain when coughing can cause inhalation of acrid smoke, foreign bodies in organs, swelling, or injury.
In any case, if such pain occurs, it is imperative to consult a doctor, but in no case self-medicate, especially if you have the following symptoms: fever, weakness, malaise, coughing intensifies within a week, coughing up sputum has bloody streaks, there is difficulty in inhaling, the face has acquired a bluish tint.
Inflammation of the respiratory system as a cause of chest pain when coughing
Due to severe inflammation of the respiratory organs, discomfort appears in the chest, turning into pain when coughing. The following diseases can be included in this list:
- tracheitis. It often appears as a result of inflammation of the upper respiratory tract, for example, with laryngitis or acute rhinitis. Cold or dusty air, inhalation of gases and vapors contribute to the onset of inflammation of the trachea. The main symptom is a dry cough at night, and especially after sleep. A coughing fit occurs when laughing, crying, deep breathing and is accompanied by a sore chest and throat pain. Therefore, patients try to breathe shallowly. In most cases, inflammation from the tracheal mucosa descends into the underlying airways, while the cough becomes even more painful and excruciating. With this perspective of spread, an antibiotic is usually prescribed (preferably in the form of an aerosol), for a painful cough - codeine, libexin, as well as expectorants.
- bronchitis. Inflammation of the bronchi, as a rule, is accompanied by a dry, painful cough and develops against the background of ARVI, as well as in people who often suffer from sinusitis, rhinitis, etc. To alleviate chest pain when coughing, they use alkaline inhalations, rubbing the chest or mustard plasters, put cans, make hot foot baths with the addition of mustard. Plentiful hot drinks (fruit drinks, lime tea, hot milk with soda) and herbal syrups (marshmallow root, licorice) help to cope well with coughs. Of the drugs, doctors usually prescribe stoptussin, tusuprex.
- pleurisy. The pleura is a thin serous membrane, part of which covers the lungs and the other part covers the chest. Most often, pleurisy is a secondary disease and occurs as a result of chronic processes in the lungs. There are several forms of pleurisy, but a cough with acute pain is usually a symptom of dry (fibrinous) pleurisy. The patient complains about pain when breathing, coughing, bending.
Sweating is observed subfebrile temperature (37-37.5 ° C) mainly in the evening, rapid breathing. The optimal position for pain relief is on the affected side. Treatment of pleurisy is long and complex and is aimed primarily at arresting the main process that is the source of the development of the disease. Symptomatic treatment is carried out in particular for the purpose of pain relief.
An agonizing cough as a symptom of lung disease
This symptom also appears with various forms of pneumonia. This is especially typical for croupous pneumonia, which is characterized by the severity and severity of the course. The causative agent is pneumococcus. The disease develops rapidly, the temperature rises to 39-40 ° C, shortness of breath occurs from the first days of the onset of the disease. On the third day, coughing and sputum of a characteristic rusty color comes. When coughing, there is a strong stabbing pain in the lungs, localized mainly in the inflamed part of them. With focal pneumonia, such pains are extremely rare. Pneumonia in any form is a dangerous disease that requires immediate and long-term treatment.
Lung collapse (pneumothorax) is accompanied by sharp stabbing pains in one of the halves of the chest, more often in the upper sections. There is a feeling of tightness in the chest, lack of air, so the patient begins to breathe more often and deeper. Every movement, including coughing, is painful for the patient. This is due to the sudden accumulation of air around the lungs, which presses on them, preventing them from fully opening for normal breathing. Pneumothorax develops after traumatic effects on the chest area (rib fracture, stab wound to the chest) or spontaneously after intense physical exertion.
Sharp chest pain when coughing, it also occurs with lung cancer. Most often, this common form of tumor appears in men, they get lung cancer four times more often than women. Usually they are smokers with many years of experience or people working in production with the presence of various kinds of pollutants. One of the most persistent symptoms of cancer is coughing fits. At first, it is dry, after which it is accompanied by the release of a small amount of mucopurulent sputum with streaks of blood, because of which it can be mistaken for tuberculosis. A painful hacking cough is accompanied by the appearance deep pain in the chest.
Cause in diseases of the cardiovascular system
Painful sensations during a cough in the chest appear not only in diseases of the respiratory system, but also in patients with problems in the cardiovascular system.
Usually, the occurrence of such a symptom indicates the severity of the disease and the need for emergency medical care... The main thing is to timely determine the true cause of the pain, because the symptoms associated with heart disease are usually markedly different from similar symptoms associated with other diseases. Therefore, if such signs indicate the development of myocardial infarction or aortic dissection, it is important to correctly diagnose the disease and make hospitalization while the patient can still be saved.
The reason for the appearance of cough in this case is mainly associated with the stagnation of blood in the pulmonary circulation. Patients have paroxysmal cough, which is most pronounced during physical exertion. At rest, he subsides. A dry, painful cough, accompanied by the release of sputum with bloody streaks, appears with a lung infarction. Similar symptoms can be observed in patients with mitral heart disease. A cough, accompanied by long attacks and an increase in intrathoracic pressure, can cause the development of hypertension and the appearance of chronic cor pulmonale.
Chest pain when coughing is also observed with inflammation in the pericardium. In this disease, there is an accumulation of inflammatory fluid in the pericardium. Often, pericarditis occurs as a complication of diseases of various internal organs. The cause is often infectious agents, for example, a bacterial infection caused by pneumococci, mycobacterium tuberculosis, etc. Pain in the heart is noted as the main symptom of dry pericarditis, although it does not always appear. Pericardial pain increases when the patient lies on his back, with a cough, deep breath, swallowing. The disease is complex and requires hospital treatment.