Raynaud's

Okay. From your answers so far, along with Raynaud's and chest pain when taking deep breaths you also have joint pain, rash or both.

The joint pain of lupus or rheumatoid arthritis is usually longstanding, worse in the morning, involves the hands and wrists and is often associated with swelling in these joints.

The rash of lupus tends to be worse with sun exposure, may be most prominent across the nose and cheeks, and may be circular and the size of a coin.

If you have this sort of rash, Raynaud's, and the chest pain you describe, lupus is an important possibility. Other conditions that might explain your symptoms include scleroderma or CREST syndrome (especially if there is skin thickening), or Sjogren's syndrome (especially if there is dryness of the eyes and mouth).

This combination also raises the possibility of an "overlap syndrome." For example, some people have a disease that combines features of Sjogren's syndrome, lupus, and rheumatoid arthritis.

On the other hand, your symptoms could be coincidental. Each of these symptoms is somewhat common in the population and might be unrelated.

Because you have several features of rheumatic disease (Raynaud's, chest pain with deep breathing, and/or joint pain, and/or rash), it is important to see a physician to have these symptoms evaluated further.

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