You are in: Home > Heart Information > Living With Heart Conditions > Angina >
Angina
- What is angina?
- What is unstable angina?
- What does angina feel like?
- What causes angina?
- How is angina diagnosed?
- How is angina treated?
- Living with angina
What is angina?
Angina is the term given to chest pain that happens when the blood supply to the heart becomes restricted.
It is a symptom of coronary heart disease, not an illness in itself.
Angina is the heart's way of complaining that it is not getting enough oxygen during physical exertion or stress.
This temporary shortage of oxygen (called an 'angina attack') to the heart muscle does not result in permanent damage to your heart. It usually passes when you stop the activity that brought it on or after taking GTN tablets or spray. Many people learn to recognise how much activity will bring on their angina. This is called stable angina.
Back to top
What is unstable angina?
Unstable angina happens when the blood supply to the heart is severely restricted and angina attacks occur more frequently, with less and less activity.
Attacks may even occur at rest or wake you from sleep and may last for up to 10 minutes. This type of chest pain can happen at rest or during the night.
Unstable angina can be undiagnosed chest pain or a sudden worsening of existing angina. You should see your doctor urgently. It is likely that you will be admitted to hospital or referred to a Rapid Access Chest Pain Clinic for assessment.
Sometimes, when chest pain occurs suddenly it is unclear if it is due to unstable angina or a heart attack. Until tests confirm the diagnosis doctors sometimes call this Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS).
Back to top
What does angina feel like?
Chest pain can sometimes start off as a dull pain or ache. It's sometimes described as heaviness, burning, tightness, constriction or squeezing sensation, a heavy weight or pressure. For some people chest pain can feel similar to indigestion or heartburn.
How angina feels for you depends on the position of the narrowed artery(s) and how severe the narrowing is. This accounts for the wide range of possible symptoms.
When we make demands on the heart by increasing the heart rate during physical activity, or when we are upset or angry, the narrowed arteries cannot supply the heart muscle with oxygen quickly enough and pain develops. This is the heart's way of telling us that we need to take a rest.
Remember that not all chect pain is caused by coronary heart disease. Other causes of chest pain include:
- Joint or muscle pain
- Lung disorders
- Stomach problems
- Gall bladder problems
Back to top
What causes angina?
The build up of atheroma in the coronary arteries leads to coronary heart disease. There are a range of risk factors which have been proven to cause, or contrtibute to, coronary heart disease.
Back to top
How is angina diagnosed?
If you have unexplained chest pain then you must seek urgent medical advice as you will need an assessment of your overall health.
This can be done either in a Rapid Access Chest Pain Clinic (RACPC) or by your GP if the necessary tests are available.
An assessment will consist of:
- Questions about what brings on the chest pain and what relieves it
- Ruling out other possible causes of chest pain
- Checking for any risk factors that may be contributing to your angina
- Measuring your weight and blood pressure
- Blood tests
- An electrocardiogram (ECG), which gives a record of the electrical activity of the heart when you are at rest
Depending on your situation, further tests or investigations may be necessary. These can include:
- Exercise ECG: also known as a treadmill test or an exercise test
- Echocardiogram: also known as an 'echo'
- Angiogram: also known as cardiac catheterisation.
- Magnetic resonance imaging scan: known as an MRI
- Thallium scan: also called myocardial perfusion scintigraphy
Full explanations of these tests can be found in the tests section.
Back to top
How is angina treated?
The main aims of treatment are:
- To control your symptoms of angina
- To maintain as high a level of activity as possible
- To improve your quality of life
- To prevent any worsening of the narrowed coronary arteries
Treatment approaches, which are explained more fully in the treatments section, include:
- Drug treatment
- Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI): angioplasty and stenting
- Heart bypass surgery
Back to top
Living with angina
A big part of living with angina is the acceptance that life may never be exactly the same again. Apart from any changes you may have to make to the way you live, you have to accept that taking drugs is also going to be a part of your life.
Some people also have to deal with the fear that the angina may be something worse such as a heart attack or that they are going to die.
Instead of hoping that by doing nothing it will all go away, you have to find a way to accept that your life can still be very good. The following pages in this section will help you to make the necessary adjustments to your life.
You will discover that you can still do a lot of things you enjoyed before, by using the drugs in the right way and following the advice to lower your risk factors and reduce your overall risk of heart disease.
This means taking control of your angina and not letting it control you.
Advice Line 
Latest News
CHSS Campaigns