When I cough I feel an electric shock in my heart. It started about a week or so ago when I barely had a cough, now I have little chest cold & feel the pain more regularly. Sometimes after the shock feeling a warm burning feeling remains for 30 secs or so. What could this be? ~J. 40 yr old female
Hello, The pain you describe is pleuritic, it is due to respiratory tract infection.  I.e.  Whenever there is infection of the lungs, even viral, the surrounding lung covering which are called pleura gets inflamed, henceforth during deep breathing or cough.  The lungs would touch the inflamed pleura, giving rise to shock like pain.  So not to worry about the same as its self limiting and will resolve as soon as the cough and cold subsides. Pleurisy is a clinical diagnosis and no test will help to diagnose, however if symptoms persist so get a chest X-ray done to make sure you haven't developed pneumonia, You may take simple paracetamol for the pain, warm compress may help.  Regards