[Adolescent with chest pain: the importance of clinical suspicion]

Introduction. Chest pain is a common complaint in children visiting the emergency department and is mostly associated with benign conditions. Although genuine cardiac causes are uncommon, potentially life threatening conditions such as the pulmonary embolism should be suspected by clinical symptoms such as dyspnoea, chest pain and syncope, either singly or in combination.

The authors report a case of a pulmonary embolism with deep venous thrombosis following immobilization in a 15- year-old adolescent with limb fracture.

This case illustrates the importance of considering pulmonary embolism in the differential diagnosis of a patient who presents at a paediatric emergency department with sudden onset of chest pain and dyspnoea.