INTRODUCTION: Chest pain in children represents approximately 5% of all referrals to pediatric cardiology services in a tertiary referral hospital. It is a common symptom in children and adolescents. Although the etiology is benign and non-cardiac in the majority of cases, chest pain as a complaint often leads to anxiety both in the child and parent, school absenteeism and restrictions on physical activity.
Extensive public awareness on the association of chest pain with ischemic heart disease and myocardial infarction in the adult has led to an erroneous assumption that the same holds true for the pediatrics patient. EPIDEMIOLOGY AND PRESENTATION: Pediatric chest pain as a primary complaint to the accident and emergency department has an occurrence rate of 0.249% and 0.288% per patient visit. There is no gender predilection in patients presenting and in the largest prospective study to…
