That's why it's especially important to have your heart health evaluated by a physician. The doctor will also want information about your lifestyle or living habits that may have an impact on heart disease, such as smoking, alcohol use, drug use and stress at work. Your cardiovascular physical examination will include measuring your blood pressure, heart rate and rhythm, checking the pulses, inspecting the veins of your neck, determining whether there is swelling, and listening to breathing and heart sounds. Your doctor will also feel the pulses in your neck, groin and feet and listen over the arteries in the neck. Weak or absent pulses, or a murmur in the neck, suggest an obstruction to blood flow.
Doctors routinely look for excess fluid by examining the legs and ankles for swelling.
Swelling, or edema, may develop with heart or kidney failure, liver disease, or if there's a blockage in a vein carrying blood back to the heart. Your doctor will press on the skin and watch how far it can be indented. Heart attacks often present with a pressure like heavy feeling in the center of the chest. This sensation can radiate of spread to the neck, shoulders or arms. You may also be short of breath, have nausea and vomiting and sweating.