Chest pain differential diagnosis

Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]

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Overview

There are several life-threatening causes of chest pain which need to be evaluated for first, which include; myocardial infarction, aortic dissection, esophageal rupture, pulmonary embolism, and tension pneumothorax. The other possible causes of chest pain can be evaluated for by carefully assessing the nature of the pain, and obtaining a thorough patient history.

Differential Diagnosis

5 Life Threatening Diseases to Exclude Immediately

• Aortic dissection
• Esophageal rupture
• Myocardial infarction
• Pulmonary embolism
• Tension pneumothorax

The frequency of conditions exclusive of acute myocardial infarction in a decreasing order is:

• Gastroesophageal disease
• Ischemic heart disease (angina, not myocardial infarction)
• Chest wall syndromes

Differentiating the Life Threatening and Ischemic Causes of Chest Pain from other Disorders

Thorough history including: onset, duration, type of pain, location, exacerbating factors, alleviating factors, and radiation. Risk factors for coronary artery disease: family history, smoking, hyperlipidemia, and diabetes.

Clinical Features of Different Conditions Presenting with Acute Chest Discomfort

CARDIOVASCULAR

Condition	Onset	Duration	Type of pain	Location	Exacerbating factors	Alleviating factors	Radiation	Associated features
Stable Angina	Sudden (acute)	2-10 minutes	Heaviness, pressure, tightness, squeezing, burning (Levine's sign)	Retrosternal	Exertion, emotions, cold	Rest, sublingual nitroglycerine (within minutes)	Radiation to neck, jaw, shoulders, or arms (commonly on left)	Sweating, nausea, palpitations, dizziness, shortness of breath, sense of impending doom
Unstable Angina	Acute	10-20 minutes	Same as stable angina but often more severe	Same as stable angina	Same as stable angina but occurs with lower levels of exertion & rest	Same as stable angina	Same as stable angina	Same as stable angina
Myocardial Infarction	Acute	Commonly > 20 minutes	Same as stable angina but often more severe	Same as stable angina	Same as stable angina but occurs with lower levels of exertion & rest	Usually unrelieved by nitroglycerine and rest	Same as stable angina	Same as stable angina
Aortic Stenosis	Acute, recurrent episodes of angina	Same as stable angina	Same as stable angina	Same as stable angina	Same as stable angina	Same as stable angina	Same as stable angina	Not specific
Aortic Dissection	Sudden severe progressive pain (common) or chronic (rare)	Variable	Tearing, ripping sensation, knife like	Depends on area of dissection	Variable	Unrelenting pain, unrelieved by nitroglycerine and rest	Radiating to back, between shoulder blades (dissection in ascending aorta)	Trauma, Surgical manipulation, pregnancy, hypertension, connective tissue disease like marfan's syndrome (cystic medial degeneration)
Pericarditis	Acute or subacute	May last for hours to days	Sharp, localized	Retrosternal	Increases with coughing, deep breathing, supine position	Relieved by sitting up and leaning forward	Radiation to shoulder, neck, back abdomen	Not specific

PULMONARY

Condition	Onset	Duration	Type of pain	Location	Exacerbating factors	Alleviating factors	Radiation	Associated features
Pulmonary Embolism	Acute	May last minutes to hours	Sharp, or knifelike pleuritic pain	Localized to side of lesion	Increased on respiratory movements, deep breathing or cough	Not specific	Not specific	Dyspnea, tachypnea, palpitation, and light headedness, hemoptysis, or a history of venous thromboembolism or coagulation abnormalities.
Spontaneous Pneumothorax	Acute	May last minutes to hours	Sharp, localized pleuritic	Localized to side of lesion	Not specific	Not specific	Not specific	Dyspnea, decreased breath sounds on involved side
Pleuritis	Acute, subacute, chronic	May last minutes to hours	Sharp, localized pleuritic	Localized to side of lesion	Increased on respiratory movements, deep breathing or cough	Not specific	Not specific	Dyspnea, cough, fever
Pulmonary Hypertension	Acute, subacute, chronic	Variable	Pressure like	Substernal	Not specific	Not specific	Not specific	Dyspnea, symptoms of right heart failure (edema

GASTROINTESTINAL

Condition	Onset	Duration	Type of pain	Location	Exacerbating factors	Alleviating factors	Radiation	Associated features
GERD, Peptic Ulcer	Acute	Minutes to hours (gastroesophageal reflux), prolonged (peptic ulcer)	Burning	Substernal, epigastric	Increases on alcohol, aspirin, post meal lying down, morning, empty stomach	Relieves on antacid, food	Not specific	Not specific
Esophageal Spasm	Acute	Minutes to hours	Burning, pressure	Retrosternal	Not specific	Relieved by sublingual nitroglycerine	Not specific	Not specific (closely mimic angina)
Cholelithiasis	Acute, subacute	Minutes to hours	Burning, colicky	Right upper abdomen, substernal, epigastric	Increases post meal, fatty food, 1-2 hours post meal	Analgesics	Not specific	Not specific

MISCELLANEOUS

Condition	Onset	Duration	Type of pain	Location	Exacerbating factors	Alleviating factors	Radiation	Associated features
Musculo-skeletal Pain	Acute, subacute	Variable	Pressure, aching	Localized to involved area	Increases by movement and pressure on involved area	Analgesics	Not specific	Not specific
Psychotic Conditions	Acute, subacute, chronic	Variable	Variable	Variable	Variable	Not specific	Not specific	History of depression, Panic attacks, Agrophobia