Pediatric Chest Pain: Using Evidence to Reduce Diagnostic Testing in the Emergency Department

Points and Pearls Excerpt

• One of the largest ED studies of pediatric chest pain patients found the most common etiologies for non–cardiac chest pain included: musculoskeletal disorders/unspecified chest pain (56%), respiratory (12%), infectious (8%), gastrointestinal (6%), and sickle cell-related causes (4%). In this study, only 0.6% of the patients had cardiac-related chest pain.¹
• A cardiac cause should be considered in patients with red-flag findings. (See Table 1.)