Chest painful obstruction

For a lay person:

Chest painful obstruction (xiong bi) is the Chinese-medicine name for chest pain or tightness of the kind that can come from the heart, such as angina. Any new chest pain should be checked by a doctor before it is treated in any other way.

For a trained medical person:

The category corresponds largely to angina pectoris and other ischaemic heart disease. Chest pain needs immediate risk stratification for acute coronary syndrome, aortic dissection, pulmonary embolism and pneumothorax before any other approach. Complementary treatment is adjunctive only, alongside conventional cardiac care.

In Chinese medicine:

Classed as chest painful obstruction (胸痺), first described in the Jin Gui Yao Lue. Patterns include Heart Blood Stasis, turbid Phlegm obstructing the chest, Heart Yang Deficiency (with Spleen Yang Deficiency), and Heart and Kidney Yin Deficiency.

When to get help: Call emergency services for chest pain lasting more than a few minutes, chest pain at rest, or chest pain with breathlessness, sweating, nausea, or pain spreading to the arm, neck or jaw.