Chest pain
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.13112/pc.1082Keywords:
CHEST PAIN; PERICARDITIS; CARDIOMYOPATHIES; PNEUMOTHORAXAbstract
Chest pain is a frequent reason why children and adolescents visit physicians. Although most often benign, chest pain is a significant reason for absence from school and avoidance of sports activities. In addition, it causes concern and anxiety both in children and their parents. Etiologically, the most common causes of pain are musculoskeletal, psychogenic, and idiopathic. Up to 6 % of children have a serious or potentially life-threatening disease such as myopericarditis, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, aortic dissection, spontaneous pneumothorax, pneumonia, or similar. Distinguishing benign conditions from potentially serious diseases is based on a detailed history and physical examination. Diagnostic tests include electrocardiogram, chest X-ray, echocardiography, blood count, inflammatory reactants, and specific cardiac enzymes such as troponin T or troponin I. This paper presents the most common causes of chest pain, and warning signs of underlying potentially life-threatening conditions, in order to detect those with potentially serious underlying diseases in the easiest possible way and treat them promptly.
References
1. Selbst SM, Ruddy RM, Clark BJ, et al. Pediatric chest pain: a prospective study. Pediatrics. 1988;82:319.
2. Drossner DM, Hirsh D, Sturm JJ, et al. Cardiac disease in pediatric patients presenting to a pediatric ED with chest pain. Am J Emerg Med. 2011;29:632-8.
3. Driscoll DJ, Glicklich LB, Gallen WJ. Chest pain in children: a prospective study. Pediatrics. 1976;57:648.
4. Friedman KG, Alexander ME. Chest pain and syncope in children: A practical approach to the diagnosis of cardiac disease. J Pediatr. 2013;163:896-901.
5. Chen L, Duan H, Li X, et al. The causes of chest pain in children and the criteria for targeted myocardial enzyme testing in identifying the causes of chest pain in children. Front Cardiovasc Med. 2021;8:582129. doi: 10.3389/fcvm.2021.582129.
6. Pissarra R, Pereira M, Amorim R, et al. Chest pain in a pediatric emergency department: Clinical assessment and management reality in a third-level Portuguese hospital. Porto Biomed J. 2022;7:e150.
7. Eliacik K, Kanik A, Bolat N, et al. Anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation, and stressful life events in non-cardiac adolescent chest pain: A comparative study about the hidden part of the iceberg. Cardiol Young. 2017;27:1098-1103.
8. Chen L, Duan H, Li G, Li X. The etiology of chest pain in children admitted to cardiology clinics and the use of echocardiography to screen for cardiac chest pain in children. Front Pediatr. 2022;10:882022. doi: 10.3389/fped.2022.882022.
9. Majerus CR, Tredway TL, Yun NK, Gerard JM. Utility of chest radiographs in children presenting to a pediatric emergency department with acute asthma exacerbation and chest pain. Pediatr Emerg Care. 2021;37:e372-e375.
10. Mohan S, Nandi D, Stephens P, et al. Implementation of a clinical pathway for chest pain in a pediatric emergency department. Pediatr Emerg Care. 2018;34:778-82.
11. Fogliazza F, Cifaldi M, Antoniol G, et al. Approaches to pediatric chest pain: A narrative review. J Clin Med. 2024;13:6659. doi: 10.3390/jcm13226659.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Aleksandar Ovuka

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
By publishing in Paediatria Croatica, authors retain the copyright to their work and grant others the right to use, reproduce, and share their research articles in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which allows others to distribute and build upon the work as long as they credit the author for the original creation.