Chest Pain in Pediatric Patients

One hundred and twenty-three patients (72 males and 51 females) with the chief complaint of chest pain, seen at our department during the five-year period from January 1982 to December 1986, were studied regarding their past medical history, physical findings, results of diagnostic tests, and prognosis. The ages of the subjects ranged from 3 to 16 years (mean 11.7 years) in boys and 3 to 20 years (mean 10.9 years) in girls, constituting 0.54% of the total number of the mean annual outpatients. Of these 123, 80 patients (65%) had chest pain lasting over one month, and 91 patients (74%) had a short time of duration of pain which improved within a few seconds to five minutes. In nine (7%) of the 123 patients, the pain was considered to be related to cardiovascular lesions and in 82 patients (67%) as being idiopathic chest pain. Chest pain in children is rarely due to serious primary cardiovascular diseases.