The prevalence of non-cardiac chest pain (NCCP) using emergency department (ED) data: a Northern Ireland based study

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Orla McDevitt-Petrovic1, Karen Kirby2, Mark Shevlin1

  • 1School of Psychology and Psychology research Institute, Ulster University, Derry, BT48 7JL, UK.

BMC Health Services Research
|August 11, 2017
PubMed

Insights

Many emergency department visits for chest pain lead to non-cardiac diagnoses like anxiety or panic. Over three years, nearly 60% of chest pain patients received a non-cardiac diagnosis, highlighting a need for further investigation.

Area of Science:

  • Emergency Medicine
  • Cardiology
  • Psychiatry

Background:

  • Chest pain is a common emergency department (ED) presentation.
  • Non-cardiac causes account for a significant proportion of these presentations.
  • Understanding the frequency of non-cardiac chest pain diagnoses is crucial for resource allocation and patient management.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To determine the incidence of chest pain presentations in an urban emergency department.
  • To identify the frequency of non-cardiac diagnoses following chest pain evaluation.
  • To analyze trends in chest pain presentations and diagnoses over a three-year period.

Main Methods:

  • Retrospective analysis of administrative data from an urban general hospital ED.
  • Data collection spanned three years (March 2013 - March 2016).
  • Frequencies of 'chest pain' presentations and subsequent diagnoses were calculated and analyzed annually.

Main Results:

  • Chest pain presentations increased annually over the study period.
  • Diagnoses of 'chest pain of unknown cause' also showed an upward trend.
  • A total of 58.7% of all chest pain presentations resulted in a non-cardiac diagnosis (anxiety, panic, or unknown cause).

Conclusions:

  • A substantial percentage of patients presenting with chest pain to the ED are discharged with a non-cardiac diagnosis.
  • The high prevalence of non-cardiac chest pain warrants further investigation into patient pathways and service utilization.
  • Exploring the link between non-cardiac chest pain and frequent healthcare service use is recommended.
Abstract

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