This review has the purpose of informing the reader about the current use of imaging techniques in patients presenting with acute chest pain to the emergency department. We will focus on three aspects of managing the patient with acute chest pain: Imaging to increase the number of correct diagnoses in the acute situation; Imaging to rule out other than coronary causes of chest pain; Use of imag...

Eighteen of 384 patients entered on the Brent sickle cell disease register died between 1974 and 1989, a mortality of one per 128 years of follow up. Two children died from acute splenic sequestration and a third died from fulminant pneumococcal septicaemia: none was taking prophylactic penicillin. Acute chest syndrome was the cause of death in eight young adults and one child. Three deaths occ...

Acute aortic syndrome can be due to acute aortic dissection, intramural hematoma, penetrating atherosclerotic ulcer, or unstable thoracic aneurysm. These life-threatening conditions are clinically indistinguishable, often presenting with acute chest pain. Contrast-enhanced, cardiac-gated multidetector computed tomography (CT) is a highly accurate imaging method for determining the cause of acut...

conclusions these findings strongly suggest the diagnosis of delayed post-infarction pericarditis, or dressler syndrome, a rare disease in the age of reperfusion therapy. although rare, it is a syndrome that must be considered in the differential diagnosis of chest pain. case presentation a 46-year-old male was admitted to the emergency department due to pleuritic chest pain. two weeks before t...

PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to assess the diagnostic accuracy and one year prognosis of whole chest, "multiple rule out" CT for coronary artery disease (CAD) in Emergency Department patients. METHODS AND FINDINGS One hundred and two Emergency Department patients at low to intermediate risk of acute coronary syndrome (ACS), pulmonary embolism and/or acute aortic syndrome underwent a ...

OBJECTIVE To investigate the cause and outcome of high fever in Jamaican children with homozygous sickle cell disease. DESIGN Retrospective review of febrile episodes in a three year period (1 September 1993 to 31 August 1996). SETTING Sickle cell clinic, an outpatient clinic in Kingston run by the Medical Research Council Laboratories (Jamaica). PATIENTS Patients with homozygous sickle c...

BACKGROUND: Asthma and sickle cell disease are common conditions that both may result in pulmonary complications. We hypothesized that children with sickle cell disease with concomitant asthma have an increased incidence of vaso-occlusive crises that are complicated by episodes of acute chest syndrome. METHODS: A 5-year retrospective chart analysis was performed investigating 48 children ages 3...

BACKGROUND Little is known about the effects of blood rheology on the occurrence of acute chest syndrome and painful vaso-occlusive crises in children with sickle cell anemia and hemoglobin SC disease. DESIGN AND METHODS To address this issue, steady-state hemorheological profiles (blood viscosity, red blood cell deformability, aggregation properties) and hematologic parameters were assessed ...

Acute chest pain with very elevated troponin level and abnormal EKG in adult population is considered sine qua non to acute coronary syndrome (ACS) unless proved otherwise. Similar presentation in adolescent population is seen less often but raises suspicion for ACS. Most common etiology for chest pain with cardiac enzyme elevation in adolescent population is usually viral myopericarditis. The ...