Please interpret my comment in a benevolent way: Have you considered that you perhaps experience panic attacks? It is pretty common especially for males to experience panic attacks as primarily physical. Can you perhaps find a pattern in your behaviour or experiences before you have those squeezes (i.e. some part of your work routine, or specific thought patterns)? Whether physical or psychological, it might be worthwhile to write some kind of symptom diary after each event.

Thanks for your comment, I haven't looked at it this way. It happens randomly also often when I'm in an inactive and relaxed state. But I'll pay closer attention to external circumstances.

You could ask your doctor about a D-Dimer test, https://medlineplus.gov/lab-tests/d-dimer-test/ . In the US, it costs about $200 without insurance and can be ordered directly by the patient.

This story describes one diagnostic process for vax-induced myocarditis, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/05/what-its-like-to-hav...

Thank you, this is so helpful, I'll definitely order this test.

I didn't see a dimer mentioned in that article, and on a brief glance its not in any of the algorithms I saw for diagnosing myocarditis.

Perhaps walterbell suspects your symptoms are related to blood clots and that is why he recommended a dimer. D-dimer is often used as a screening test when there is relatively low suspicion for pulmonary embolism. I can't say either way, but if you're most concerned about myocarditis a dimer would probably only muddy the waters imo. With your symptoms and a positive dimer you might end up getting a chest CT (you say you've already had some workup done, not sure if that was included).

Your best bet is probably to find another doctor or pursue further workup with your current doctor as there are a lot of nuances not easily captured through an internet discussion board. For all we know you may have asthma.

Thanks for your response. I did echo, lung CT, cardiac stress test but neither of these shown any anomalies. One doctor suggested angiocardiography "just in case" but it requires taking pills for a few days to lower heart rate. I'm still not sure lowering my heart rate with meds is a good idea.

If you did a lung CT they probably looked for blood clots (your doctor would know if they did or not), in which case dimer is not going to help you.

Ironically, if you are having panic attacks, a drug that lowers your heart rate may help treat them.

Right. I visited a pulmonologist a couple of days ago and she said clots doesn't seem to be my case. And yes, asthma is her main hypotheses now. Which seems strange given I'm in my late 40s.

Thanks for the follow up!

> I feel like my chest (heart? lungs?) squeezes for a few seconds

Do you feel pain when this happens?

> then I have problems breathing normally

Does your breathing rate increase? (hyperventilation)

Next time this happens you can undertake a small test. Take 15 g of sugar in one go and see whether you experience an immediate improvement. This test will show whether the condition is related to decreased ATP production which is known to cause panic attacks in some people (false hypoglycemia). If you see an improvement from sugar then it means it is related (you can take a look at my other posts to see how to manage that).

Other tests that may be helpful for you: HOMA-IR, A1c, Low-Density Lipoprotein (LDL), High-Density Lipoprotein (HDL), Cholesterol, Triglycerides, Gamma-glutamyl Transferase (GGT).

Thanks for your comment! I'll do the sugar test and check if there are some blood tests from your list I haven't done yet.

> Do you feel pain when this happens?

No, just weird unpleasant "squeeze" sensation in chest.

> Does your breathing rate increase? (hyperventilation)

Not sure but probably not. It makes me breath way deeper, but frequency seems the same.

> just weird unpleasant "squeeze" sensation in chest.

If the hypothesis of a non-satisfactory ATP production applies to you, then this is the moment of energy production decompensation. It causes the feeling of a sudden and unexplainable "halt" in consciousness/breathing/muscle activity, after that you become very alert and subconsciously start racing the heart/lungs, feeling that you are not ok. Some people even feel that they may pretty much die.

But the exact manifestation varies from person to person. An example of a real-world situation is presented in [1].

> It makes me breath way deeper, but frequency seems the same.

This also counts as hyperventilation. It's either frequency increase, deepness increase, or both.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29139740

P.S. I will monitor this thread from time to time in the following months. Just drop a reply if I can be of further help.

Thank you so much again. Not sure if it's my case (I'll check with sugar) but analysis of this level is way above any doctor I ever visited. One minor note though, I find these attacks happening even when inactive and relaxed, not only under heavy physical/mental activity or stress.

> I find these attacks happening even when inactive and relaxed

In the initial stages, attacks do occur mainly under the mental/physical load. The condition slowly but steadily progresses to everyday attacks over several weeks/months.

In the later stages, attacks may even occur during the night when a person sleeps or tries to sleep. A person may have several attacks during the day at this point.