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Pain when breathing in
Category: Lungs & Breathing · All lungs & breathing symptoms
What it can feel like
Pain when breathing in — pleuritic pain — is a sharp, stabbing pain, usually on one side of the chest, that catches as you take a deep breath, cough or laugh. It comes from the inflamed lining of the lung or chest wall moving with each breath.
Possible causes
A symptom can have many causes, and most are not serious. The lists below group conditions this symptom can be associated with — common causes first. They are possibilities to discuss with a clinician, not a diagnosis.
Common causes
Pleuritic pain can be associated with chest infections and pneumonia irritating the lung lining, with a strained muscle or injured rib, and with inflammation of the lung lining after a viral illness.
Other possible causes
Pleuritic pain can also be associated with a blood clot in the lung, a collapsed lung, or fluid or pus collecting around the lung — causes that usually bring breathlessness or fever with them.
Red flags — when to seek help promptly
- Pain when breathing together with breathlessness — urgent
- Pleuritic pain with coughing blood or calf swelling
- Sharp chest pain after a chest injury, with increasing breathlessness
- Pleuritic pain with high fever and feeling very unwell
What a clinician may do
A clinician will listen to the chest, check oxygen levels and pulse, and examine for infection or a clot. Blood tests including infection markers and a D-dimer, an ECG and a chest X-ray are common; a CT scan of the lungs follows if a clot is suspected.
Watch: related videos
Examination and clinical videos from the MedicalVideos.com library relevant to this symptom. Some clinical footage is graphic — that is the nature of a medical video library.
Related guides on MedicalVideos.com
Frequently asked questions
How is pleuritic pain different from heart pain?
Pleuritic pain is sharp, localised, and clearly varies with breathing in or coughing. Heart pain is more often heavy or squeezing, central, and related to exertion rather than breaths. The overlap is enough that any new chest pain deserves proper assessment rather than self-sorting.
Why do doctors ask about my calves?
Because a clot in the leg vein is the usual source of a clot in the lung. Calf swelling or pain alongside pleuritic pain and breathlessness makes that diagnosis much more likely and changes how urgently scans are done.
Related symptoms — Lungs & Breathing
Browse the P section of the A–Z list or return to the Symptoms A–Z hub.