Heart vessels obstruction syndrome refers to symptoms of palpitation, chest oppression and heart pain due to obstruction of the heart vessels by blood stasis, phlegm, yin cold and qi stagnation. This syndrome is caused by primary asthenia of healthy qi, inactivation of heart yang and obstruction of the heart vessels by substantial pathogenic factors. According to different causes, this syndrome may be divided into different types, such as obstruction of heart vessels by stagnation, obstruction of heart vessels by phlegm, obstruction of heart vessels by cold coagulation and stagnation of qi in heart vessels, etc.

Clinical manifestations:
Palpitation, chest oppression and pain, pain involving the shoulder, back and inner part of arm and occasional occurrence; or stabbing chest pain, dull tongue or tongue with purplish petechiae, thin and astringent pulse or knotted pulse and slow regular intermittent pulse; or chest oppression and pain, obesity and profuse sputum, heaviness of body and lassitude, whitish greasy tongue fur, sunken and slippery pulse or sunken and astringent pulse; or aggravation of pain with cold, alleviation with warmth, cold body and limbs, pale tongue with white fur, sunken and slow pulse or sunken and tense pulse; or pain and distension, hypochondriac distension, sighing, light reddish tongue and taut pulse. Such symptoms are usually seen in coronary atherosclerotic cardiopathy, angina pectoris, myocardial infarction and primary cardiac myopathy, etc.

Analysis of symptoms: Palpitation is due to inactivation of heart yang, lack of warmth and irregular heart beating; chest oppression and pain are due to failure of yangqi to disperse, weak flow of blood and obstruction of heart vessels; pain involving the shoulder, back and inner side of the arm is due to the fact that the heart meridian distributes directly to the lung, comes out from the armpit and moves along the inner side of the arm. Stasis in the heart vessels is marked by dull pain, usually accompanied by dull or purplish tongue with petechiae, thin and astringent pulse or knotted pulse and slow regular intermittent pulse.

Obstruction of heart vessels by phlegm is marked by dull pain, usually accompanied by obesity, profuse phlegm, heaviness and lassitude of the body, whitish greasy fur, sunken and slippery pulse or sunken and astringent pulse that indicate internal exuberance of phlegm; obstruction of heart vessels by cold coagulation is marked by sharp pain, sudden onset, alleviation with warmth, accompanied by aversion to cold and preference for warmth, cold limbs, pale tongue with white fur, sunken and slow pulse or sunken and tense pulse that indicate internal exuberance of cold; obstruction of heart vessels by qi stagnation is marked by distending pain and close relation of occurrence with psychological factors, often?accompanied by hypochondriac distension, susceptibility to sighing and taut pulse that indicate stagnation of qi.

Key points for syndrome differentiation:
The key points are palpitation, chest oppression and pain. Since obstruction of heart vessels is caused by various factors, such as blood stasis, phlegmatic turbidity, cold coagulation and qi stagnation, so trials must be made in differentiating pain and complications to specify the causes of disease.