OBJECTIVE Chest pain in children and adolescents is rarely associated with cardiac disease. We sought to examine psychological symptoms in youngsters with medically unexplained chest pain. We hypothesized that children and adolescents with medically unexplained chest pain would have high rates of anxiety and depressive symptoms. METHODS We assessed 65 youngsters with noncardiac chest pain (NC...

Tachycardia is common in the pediatric age group. The most commonly seen arrhythmias in children are sinus tachycardia. However, supraventricular tachycardia is the most common tachyarrhythmia that necessitates treatment. Ventricular tachycardia is rare in healthy children but may be associated with sudden cardiac death.  The important risk factors that predispose children for arrhythmias inclu...

Background: Cardiac markers in serum are measured in the early hours after the onset of symptoms not to detect Acute Myocardial Infarction (AMI) but to exclude MI. To rule out AMI, one frequently must rely on the measurement of cardiac enzymes or biochemical markers when patients suspected of AMI present with atypical chest pain or a non-diagnostic ECG. We studied the levels of troponin T, and ...

Cardiac perforation by pacemaker (PM) lead is a rare but potentially life-threatening complication. The clinical presentation highly variable. Patients may be asymptomatic or present with chest pain, dyspnea tamponade. In this case, we report patient implantation who developed stubborn cough secondary to perforation.

INTRODUCTION In 2007 there were 64,000 visits to the emergency department (ED) for possible myocardial infarction (MI) related to cocaine use. Prior studies have demonstrated that low- to intermediate-risk patients with cocaine-associated chest pain can be safely discharged after 9-12 hours of observation. The goal of this study was to determine the safety of an 8-hour protocol for ruling out M...

Capecitabine, an oral prodrug of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), is approved for early-stage and advanced colorectal cancer and metastatic breast cancer. Cardiotoxicity of 5-FU is well described in the literature. However, cardiac adverse effects of capecitabine are poorly described. We report a case of coronary vasospasm induced by capecitabine. A 41-year-old female with metastatic breast cancer presen...

STUDY OBJECTIVE We evaluate the safety and feasibility of a critical care pathway protocol in which patients with acute chest pain who are low risk for coronary artery disease and short-term adverse cardiac outcomes receive outpatient stress testing within 72 hours of an emergency department (ED) visit. METHODS We performed an observational study of an ED-based chest pain critical pathway in ...

Analysis of the association between symptoms and abnormal oesophageal function is a central part of 24 hour oesophageal pressure and pH recording in patients with non-cardiac chest pain. Such studies have used different time windows including a period after the onset of pain. Since stress and pain can induce oesophageal motor abnormalities and transient lower oesophageal sphincter relaxations, ...

Chest pain is a common presenting symptom in emergency departments, and its evaluation management require careful consideration of various potential causes, ranging from benign musculoskeletal to serious cardiac conditions. Myocardial infarction (MI) well-known cause chest pain, particularly older individuals with risk factors such as hypertension, hyperlipidemia, smoking history. However, MI y...