Chest pain can be indicative of many conditions. Digestive causes include heartburn, swallowing disorders, or problems with the gallbladder or pancreas. Lung-related causes include pulmonary embolism, pleurisy or a collapsed lung. And potential cardiac-related causes include angina, pericarditis and heart attack.
It’s helpful for Main Line Health emergency department (ED) clinicians to have aggregated data about the types of patients who report chest pain. An extensive study of patients treated in Main Line Health’s four acute care hospital EDs during 2015 to 2017 showed that most patients reporting chest pain were aged 40 to 59 years old. More troubling was that almost one third of black or African American ED patients reporting chest pain were age 39 or younger, with more females then males in that cohort.
