My sister has told me about two episodes of severe chest pain, accompanied by breathlessness, sweating and then vomiting. As a nurse I think this sounds like classical heart attack symptoms. However, she has seen her doctor and despite all kinds of tests no heart problem has been detected. She is 58, slim, healthy and young for her age. I am very worried about this, could it be something other than a heart attack?

There are many causes for Chest pain that range from Coronary heart disease to psychogenic.
Have they checked her for an AORTIC ANEURYSM? This is caused from a weakness in the wall of the aorta where it comes off the heart, it can be from birth or caused from an injury. Extremely dangerous condition to have, it can rupture and the person could bleed to death in minutes.

Often the ECG results will read normal in an uncomplicated aortic aneurysm and it can be missed. The best tests to begin with for diagnosing would be a Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or a computed tomography (CT) scan of the chest.

The symptoms for an high aortic arch aneurysm are light-headedness, weakness, Shortness of breath, Rapid heart beat, sweating, numbness or tingling in the arm, Chest pain or pressure and loss of consciousness (fainting). This is a very dangerous thing to have, especially if he is having discomfort.