What causes angina?

The common underlying process is narrowing of the coronary arteries by fatty plaque. A coronary artery spasm or disease affecting the heart's small blood vessels can also limit flow, and severe anaemia or other conditions can create an oxygen supply-and-demand mismatch.

A trigger is the immediate demand that brings on symptoms; it is not necessarily the disease causing reduced blood flow. Physical exertion, emotional strain, cold weather, or a heavy meal can make the heart work harder and expose an existing limitation.

Factors linked with coronary artery disease include smoking, high blood pressure, diabetes, unhealthy cholesterol levels, kidney disease, and family history. Their presence does not prove that a particular chest sensation is angina, but it informs the assessment.

Book a medical review for chest pressure, squeezing, heaviness, or tightness that appears with effort or keeps returning. The clinician may review your symptom pattern and risk factors, examine you, record an electrocardiogram, and select further tests based on the findings.

Keep notes on the activity at onset, location, spread, associated breathlessness or nausea, duration, and relief. Continue prescribed treatment as directed and avoid making medication changes based only on a suspected cause.

Seek emergency help for severe or persistent chest pressure, symptoms at rest, a rapidly worsening pattern, or discomfort unlike your previous episodes. Call UAE emergency services if pain spreads to the arm, jaw, back, or shoulder, or comes with breathlessness, fainting, cold sweating, confusion, or marked weakness.

An unstable pattern can signal an acute reduction in heart blood flow. Waiting for a routine appointment is not appropriate when red-flag symptoms are present.

Ask which diagnosis could explain your pattern, which risk factors can be treated, and what each proposed test is intended to clarify. Request a written plan covering safe activity, medicine use, follow-up, and the changes that require emergency action.