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Published on: 5/6/2025

What Might Cause Pain in the Middle of My Chest When I Breathe?

The pain in the middle of your chest when you breathe can be due to respiratory conditions, such as pleurisy or even pneumomediastinum, or it might come from issues in the chest wall.

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Explanation

A tightening or pain in the middle of your chest while breathing is often called respiratory chest pain. One reason for this pain could be pleurisy, an inflammation of the thin tissue (pleura) that covers your lungs and lines your chest. When you breathe, this tissue moves, and if it’s irritated or inflamed, it can cause sharp pain. Another possibility is pneumomediastinum. In this condition, air leaks into the central part of your chest (the mediastinum) and causes discomfort, especially when breathing deeply. Additionally, sometimes pain linked to breathing may come from the muscles or joints of your chest wall rather than your lungs, such as with costochondritis, where the cartilage connecting your ribs to your breastbone is inflamed. Since these causes each affect breathing differently, it’s important to have persistent or severe pain evaluated by a healthcare professional, who can use your history, a physical exam, and possibly imaging tests to determine the exact reason and decide on appropriate treatment.

(References)

  • Brims FJ, Davies HE, Lee YC. Respiratory chest pain: diagnosis and treatment. Med Clin North Am. 2010 Mar;94(2):217-32. doi: 10.1016/j.mcna.2010.01.003. PMID: 20380952.

  • https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK416/
  • Bass C, Mayou R. Chest pain. BMJ. 2002 Sep 14;325(7364):588-91. doi: 10.1136/bmj.325.7364.588. PMID: 12228139; PMCID: PMC1124107.

  • Kara H, Uyar HG, Degirmenci S, Bayir A, Oncel M, Ak A. Dyspnoea and chest pain as the presenting symptoms of pneumomediastinum: two cases and a review of the literature. Cardiovasc J Afr. 2015 Nov-Dec;26(6):e1-4. doi: 10.5830/CVJA-2015-035. Epub 2015 Oct 8. PMID: 26498134; PMCID: PMC4780017.

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