Osteochondrosis of the thoracic spine does not manifest itself as often as osteochondrosis in other departments, but it is just as rejuvenated as other types of this disease. To date, it is already diagnosed in 20-year-olds, which is associated with both lifestyle and diet.
Thoracic osteochondrosis is the least common, but most dangerous form of pathology of all types of osteochondrosis. Symptoms of thoracic osteochondrosis are so atypical that they can be attributed to other diseases, such as myocardial infarction or angina pectoris.
The disease really poses a threat, because after a while, if there is no proper treatment, osteochondrosis can cause the heart to malfunction, and the line between these conditions is very thin.
Symptoms of osteochondrosis
The thoracic spine is less mobile due to its anatomical features. Due to this, it is less loaded, and therefore osteochondrosis appears much less frequently here. When the first pathological changes appear in the chest region, patients do not feel any signs of the disease for a long time, since it develops slowly.
Symptoms of osteochondrosis depend on the stage of development of the disease and are fully correlated with it. At an early stage, the symptoms are less pronounced, while late osteochondrosis causes severe signs, for example, a feeling of pain in the heart, an increased heartbeat. The manifestations of the disease are as follows:
- in the first degree of the development of the disease, discomfort in osteochondrosis occurs due to a violation of the integrity of the intervertebral disc. Rupture can be caused by a sudden, awkward movement or a heavy load in the region of the thoracic vertebrae. At such times, patients suffer from increased sensitivity in this area of the spine, experience severe pain and muscle tension. Patients note that the sensations are comparable to an electric shock passed through the back;
- the second degree of the disease is characterized by a protrusion of the intervertebral discs, which protrude up to a distance of 5 mm. The spine becomes unstable, the diagnosis requires a thorough analysis of the patient's state of health, since patients constantly complain of discomfort and pain behind the chest, muscle tension, which can be a symptom of various pathologies;
- the third degree of thoracic osteochondrosis has more prominent manifestations - pain becomes more frequent, patients suffer from breathing problems (sudden shortness of breath, feeling of lack of air), feel headaches, and there are cardiac interruptions withosteochondrosis.
Important!The fourth stage of the disease for the patient is the most dangerous. Here, osteophytes appear on the surface of the vertebrae, which compress the spinal cord and nerve endings.
At different stages of the disease, patients are haunted by the following pathological symptoms:
- intercostal neuralgia - a feeling of sharp pain in the sternum. At first, the point of appearance of pain can only be in one place, but after a while the pain completely covers the human chest. It becomes difficult for patients to breathe, to change the position of the body. If you try to bend, move or get up from one place, the painful sensations increase significantly;
- muscle spasms - the pain in the muscles of the back is quite strong, and the pain spreads to the lumbar zone, can even radiate to the abdomen and shoulders. Spasms are reflex in nature, that is, they themselves do not respond to pain, but respond to spastic contractions of other muscles;
- a pre-existing feeling of discomfort - it can have a different strength and manifest itself long before the exacerbation. Unpleasant sensations haunt patients for several days or even weeks before the manifestation of more severe signs of osteochondrosis. Usually the discomfort only appears in the back and sternum and may either go away or get worse again;
- with osteochondrosis, the symptoms of the pathology are usually more pronounced at night. In the morning, the patient feels great, although in the cold season or with sudden movements, osteochondrosis reappears.
Atypical symptoms
Chondrosis is insidious in that its symptoms may not resemble back pain at all. And sometimes patients do not even suspect that the problem with the disorder lies precisely in the spine - they drink painkillers or heart medications, which have absolutely nothing to do with the cause of the pain.
In case of multiple symptoms, you should contact the clinic for professional advice from a doctor - only after a comprehensive examination can osteochondrosis or heart pathology be detected
To suspect osteochondrosis, you need to know what manifestations may indicate the disease:
- the appearance of pain in the region of the heart, more similar to the symptoms of angina or even myocardial infarction. Such colic can last for weeks, and the drugs used to dilate the coronary vessels have no positive effect on the situation;
- an exacerbation of the disease can cause pain in the mammary glands and feelings of tightness in women, as during pregnancy. Therefore, when such sensations appear, it is necessary to consult a mammologist.
- spastic pains in the upper abdomen, which some patients regard as symptoms of gastritis, cholecystitis or pancreatitis. The pain usually gets worse with increased physical activity. Such signs of pathology can seriously affect the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract;
- problems with the functioning of the bladder and genitals;
- pain in the pharynx and esophagus, foreign body sensation and pain when swallowing.
With osteochondrosis of the thoracic spine, Dorsago syndrome is manifested, which is characterized by the appearance of very severe pain in the sternum that occurs when rising from certain positions - sitting or lying down. Unpleasant sensations behind the sternum are so strong that it becomes difficult for patients to breathe, there is muscle stiffness, pain when turning the neck, in the lower back.
Back pain develops slowly. At the initial stage, discomfort occurs only with active movements, and after a while it constantly makes itself felt. At the height of the disease, even deep breathing can cause painful back pain.
Signs of heart pain
Patients often confuse pain in the heart with manifestations of osteochondrosis, which is not surprising, because with spinal disease the discomfort in the sternum is so strong that patients, as a result of fear, suspect the worst - heart problems. In order to distinguish heart pain from osteochondrosis, you need to know the main features of heart pain:
- localization - the correct definition of localization will allow to partially dispel doubts about chondrosis. Pain in the heart occurs mainly clearly behind the sternum or is localized in the left half of the sternum. It radiates between the shoulder blades, can give to the lower jaw, is felt in the left hand;
- characteristic of pain - heart pain is distinguished by enviable constancy, it is compressive, pressing in nature, it bakes behind the sternum, and due to the acute nature of its occurrence, such pain was called "dagger";
- provoking factors - usually pain in the heart has a clear factor, under the influence of which pressure increases and discomfort occurs. It can be both physical activity and a factor of emotional distress, stress. At rest, when a person is relaxed and not nervous, pain in the region of the heart usually does not occur, but even with a minimum load that caused a narrowing of the vessel, angina pectoris develops;
- the time factor - heart pain does not last long, you can always establish its beginning and end. Typically, an angina attack sets in within minutes. The heart does not sting in advance, does not hurt and does not pull. Most often, it is the period of anterior discomfort that makes it possible to distinguish osteochondrosis from true heart pain, the duration of an attack of which is limited mainly to 15-20 minutes;
- the nature of the cessation of chest pain is an important factor that doctors also consider in differentiating osteochondrosis from heart disease. Usually, a heart attack is pumped up quickly, while the patient needs to stop the provoking factor - stop exercising or calm down in the presence of stress. You can take a nitroglycerin tablet, which in most cases helps to eliminate the discomfort and even completely stop the pain within minutes. With myocardial infarction, nitroglycerin does not cope with pain, and patients need urgent help.
Tips!These features are typical of heart pain, however, angina can also cause shortness of breath, causing stomach pain. Therefore, the symptoms that have arisen should be analyzed in a complex, taking into account the relationship and focusing on cardiac manifestations.
Problems with diagnosing heart pathologies cannot always be solved by patients who do not have at least a general idea of how real heart pain manifests itself and what discomfort with osteochondrosis looks like, so thedoctors advise in a critical situation not to delay the manifestations of pathology and always call an ambulance. "
Osteochondrosis as a cause of heart pain
Pain behind the sternum can be a manifestation of purely osteochondrosis, real heart pain, but do not lose sight of what osteochondrosis affects the heart itself. Doctors have long been talking about the connection between this disease and pain in the heart, but now there are scientific studies confirming the mechanism of occurrence of pain in the heart, the etiology of which is problems in the musculoskeletal system, namely osteochondrosisof the thoracic region.
There are nerve connections between the spine and the heart that affect the work of the heart and cause the organ to malfunction. The stellate ganglion is actively involved in the innervation of the heart, from which the vertebral nerve departs - a part of the sympathetic plexus of the spinal artery.
The sympathetic plexus indirectly affects the brainstem and the cortex. Therefore, in osteochondrosis, nerve connections can cause various heart pain syndromes, metabolic consequences that affect the contractility of the heart muscle, and the occurrence of arrhythmias.
Few people know that both diseases develop already at the age of 40-50, and late diagnosis leads to combined symptoms, which causes errors.
Difficulties in diagnosis are that patients with osteochondrosis acquire the disease at the age of more than forty-fifty years, and already at this age the first heart disorders begin to appear. Therefore, the diagnosis of osteochondrosis and coronary heart disease leads to frequent errors - it is difficult to determine the etiology of pain. This happens for the following reasons:
- insufficient diagnosis of the cause of heart pain;
- limited knowledge of cardiologists about whether the heart can hurt with osteochondrosis;
- reassessment of the results of the ECG, according to which the patient is almost immediately labeled with one or another diagnosis;
- the absence of an x-ray, which shows a pronounced sign of osteochondrosis of the thoracic spine.
Also, during the diagnosis, the nature of the pains of projection, their localization and the feelings of the patients are not always taken into account. Therefore, such shortcomings in the diagnosis lead to the fact that about 80% of patients with osteochondrosis during the initial examination receive an incorrect diagnosis - coronary heart disease. Even an ECG with a high peak T wave confirms this diagnosis, but doctors, not knowing whether it is the heart or osteochondrosis, prefer the first factor.
Only with an additional examination and x-rays it is possible to establish that the heart pain associated with osteochondrosis is neurodystrophic, and not ischemic in nature. It was she who influenced cardialgia, causing characteristic manifestations and, as a result, misdiagnosis. Studies also note that pain in the heart most often occurs in patients who already have pathologies of the organ, in particular, atherosclerotic changes in the vessels.
Important!The main threat in the diagnosis of such pain is the relationship between the coronary and non-coronary component as the cause of discomfort behind the sternum. This facet, which is the effect of osteochondrosis on the heart, is extremely difficult to isolate.
Some studies observed a patient with coronary insufficiency, a severe angiotic disease, who did not develop myocardial infarction within a week of cardiospasm, although the ECG data was quite threatening. However, the degree of severity spoke more in favor of the non-coronary component.
The main role of the doctor in this case is to correctly diagnose the disease, assess the patient's state of health, in particular the indicators of the work of the heart, and predict possible threats to the patient's life, because witha related genesis - coronary and non-coronary - it is extremely difficult to distinguish the proportion of each. According to statistics, patients in one hundred percent of cases come to the clinic for urgent care precisely with a diagnosis of a pre-infarction condition or myocardial infarction.
Elimination of pain
After the causes are clarified and the diagnosis is made, the doctor will prescribe treatment - a detailed treatment regimen will help the patient control pain and prevent the development of complications. Therapy includes drugs, physiotherapeutic treatment methods, homeopathy. The main methods of therapy are:
- bed rest is recommended until the pain subsides completely;
- to eliminate pain in the heart, it is necessary to take painkillers, antispasmodics, patients will be recommended steroidal or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs when osteochondrosis is detected, but they should not be abused due to their side effectson the gastrointestinal tract;
- in addition to drugs for oral use, you can use various anesthetic creams, gels, oils. Effective remedies with safe components are drugs based on bee venom, turpentine, tea tree oil;
- to activate blood circulation, nootropic drugs, chondroprotectors, vasodilators and diuretics will be useful;
- an excellent effect on the body of a sick person will be the passage of a course of physiotherapy. The prescribed methods will help to cope with both the manifestations of osteochondrosis, and will strengthen the body with pain in the heart;
- acupressure in the spine with special emphasis on damaged tissues will help to cope with back pain, muscle stiffness. All areas prone to spasms are relaxed, aches are eliminated. At the same time, acupressure will help correct posture;
- in the subacute period, physiotherapy exercises are allowed, aimed at strengthening the muscles in the projection on the thoracic spine. You can visit the swimming pool, undergo special physical training;
- a diet will help get rid of pain - the doctor will separately recommend products for the pathology of the musculoskeletal system, as well as correct the nutrition of the nuclei, enrich it with substances necessary for the normal functioning of the heart muscle. Traditionally, for all patients, you should pay attention to the use of fatty, sweet, salty, if necessary, you should reduce excess weight.
Most important
Osteochondrosis of the thoracic spine refers to degenerative-dystrophic lesions of cartilage tissue, as a result of which a person experiences severe pain and discomfort. The disease develops mainly in patients over forty years of age, its appearance is influenced by joint pathologies, traumatic injuries, hereditary factors, stress, metabolic disorders, imperfect working conditions, hormonal disturbances. Osteochondrosis itself can cause pain similar to heart pain and indirectly affect the development of heart pathology.
To differentiate pathology, a special diagnostic test is performed - novocaine blockade of the starry node, which helps to find out the patient's diagnosis and correctly assess his condition. In addition, it is also worth considering the irradiation of pain, the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of cardio drugs, the presence of changes in the ECG performed at different times.
Treatment is prescribed depending on the cause of the disease, which can be recognized after a thorough examination. Cardiac drugs are recommended for the treatment of coronary heart disease, while osteochondrosis can be cured with NSAIDs, steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, chondroprotectors, and in some cases surgery is required.