Chest pain

Chest pain is one of the most frightening symptoms a person can have. It is sometimes difficult even for a doctor or other medical professional to tell what is causing chest pain and whether it is life-threatening. However, there are many possible causes of chest pain. Some causes are mildly inconvenient, while other causes are serious, even life-threatening.

  • Any part of the chest can be the cause of the pain including the heart, lungs, esophagus, muscle, bone, tendons, nerves or skin.
  • Because of the complex nerve distribution in the body, chest pain may actually originate from another part of the body.
  • For example the stomach or other organs in the abdomen can cause chest pain.

Potentially life-threatening causes of chest pain are as follows:

  • Heart attack (acute myocardial infarction)
  • Angina
  • Aortic dissection (dissection means a tear in the inner lining of the aorta.
  • Pulmonary embolism: (a pulmonary embolus is a blood clot in one of the major blood vessels that supplies the lungs)
  • Spontaneous pneumothorax (often called a collapsed lung)
  • Perforated viscus (a perforated viscus is a hole or tear in the wall of any area of the gastrointestinal tract)

Chest pain, regardless of whether it is caused by a life-threatening condition, needs to be evaluated by a medical professional. Upon arrival in the AMC ER, emergency staff will immediately begin testing using three basic procedures to decide if a patient is having a heart attack.

  • The first is the symptoms reported by the patient.
  • The second is an electrocardiogram (ECG or EKG), an electrical tracing of the heart's activity. On the ECG, it may be possible to tell which vessels in the heart are blocked or narrowed.
  • The third is measurement of enzymes produced by the heart muscle cells when they do not receive enough oxygen. These enzymes are detectable with blood tests and are called cardiac enzymes.

If these tests prove negative, then subsequent tests are initiated for other possible causes of the chest pain: cardiac catheterization, ventilation-perfusion scans, CT scans, x-rays, blood gas analysis and echocardiograms.
The test results will allow for accurate diagnosis and determination the treatment protocol prescribed for the patient.