Is cervicogenic heart disease easily misdiagnosed as coronary artery disease?

  As we all know, cervical spondylosis is a common and frequent disease among middle-aged and elderly people. It is a syndrome mainly manifested by neck and shoulder pain, radiating to the head and occipital region or upper limbs, with headache and dizziness, numbness and pain in the upper limbs, and in severe cases, spasms in both lower limbs, difficulty in walking, and even tetraplegia. Cervical spondylosis can also often involve the cardiovascular system, resulting in chest pain, arrhythmia, chest discomfort, palpitations, shortness of breath and other symptoms. These cardiovascular diseases caused by cervical spondylosis are collectively referred to as “cervicogenic heart disease” or “cervicocardiac syndrome”.  The sympathetic nerves from the cervical and thoracic spine are distributed to the heart, and when the cervical spine is diseased, it will compress the sympathetic nerves, which will affect the nerves that innervate the heart and then cause heart disease, showing symptoms similar to coronary heart disease and angina, and some patients will have symptoms such as tachycardia and bradycardia.  ”Cervicogenic heart disease” is often misdiagnosed as coronary heart disease. In fact, there is a difference between angina pectoris in cervicogenic heart disease and angina pectoris in coronary heart disease. Cervicogenic heart disease has nothing to do with exertional load and emotional excitement, which cannot be relieved by taking nitroglycerin drugs and calcium antagonists; while the increased burden on the cervical spine is often a trigger for the onset of this type of angina, such as high pillow position, maintaining an excessively head-up and head-down posture for a long time, turning the head and neck to one side for a long time, cold, dampness, sprains and strain on the spine. It is worth noting that before diagnosing cervicogenic heart disease, heart disease should first be ruled out by electrocardiogram, coronary angiography and other examination methods.  Conservative treatment of traction or manipulation are very effective, and it is important to pay attention to the regularity of life and avoid strain in general.