Evaluation of Children and Adolescents Admitted to the Emergency Department with Complaints of Chest Pain

Introduction: Chest pain (CP) is a common reason for pediatric emergency department presentation. The possibility of heart originated pain frightens the family. There is no pathology in most of the cases. Here, we aimed to evaluate the etiological causes of children and adolescents who admitted to the pediatric emergency service with complaint of CP. Materials and Methods: Two hundred ninety eight cases aged between 8 and 18 years who admitted to the emergency service with GA complaints between February 2018 and 2019 were included in the study. Demographic characteristics, physical examinations, laboratory findings and diagnoses of the patients were analyzed retrospectively. Results: The most common causes of CP were determined as idiopathic (50.3%), musculoskeletal system (24.1%) and psychogenic (10.2%). Most of the patients were over 12 years old (n=169, 58.7%) and female (n=155, 53.8%). There was no significant difference in terms of age and gender (p=0.06, p=0.07).The cardiac causes was found to be 4.5% of the all causes. The most common cardiac causes were mitral valve prolapse and mitral insufficiency. Psychogenic causes were higher in females, and psychogenic causes were anxiety, panic attack and depression, respectively. Conclusion: Most of CP in children is due to non-cardiac causes. Although the most common cause of GA is idiopathic, the incidence of psychogenic causes in CP etiology is gradually increasing in adolescents. As a result of detailed history, physical examination and laboratory tests, families should be informed and felt comforted about the diagnosis of the patients.